Von Alvens Airview Airport

While no single official reason is documented, the closure is consistent with the fate of many small, privately-owned general aviation airports in the United States during that period. The most likely reasons include a combination of economic factors: increasing land values for agriculture or suburban development, the high cost of maintenance and insurance, and potentially the retirement or death of the owner/operator without a successor to continue the business.

The airport is permanently closed and the site has been repurposed. The majority of the former runway and airfield area has been converted to agricultural use, with crops planted over the old turf landing strip. The faint outline of the runway is still visible from satellite imagery. Several of the original airport buildings, including what appears to be a former hangar and an adjacent house, still stand on the property and are now used for private residential and storage purposes.

Von Alvens Airview Airport (also known as Von Alven Air-View) was a classic example of a small, post-World War II general aviation airfield. Established between 1946 and 1954 by the Von Alven family, it served the local community of Beecher, Illinois. The airport featured a single unpaved turf runway, approximately 2,640 feet long, oriented northeast/southwest. It primarily handled light aircraft for recreational flying, flight training, and private aircraft storage. It was a hub for local pilots and represented a grassroots era of American aviation before economic pressures led to the closure of many similar small fields.

There are no known plans or prospects for reopening Von Alvens Airview Airport. The land has been integrated into surrounding agricultural and residential properties, and the infrastructure has been removed or repurposed. Given the land's current use and value, re-establishing an airport at this location is considered economically and logistically infeasible.