Designed by Henry L. Gogerty in 1928, the Grand Central Air Terminal (Air Terminal) combines Spanish Colonial Revival style with Zig-zag (Art Deco) Moderne influences. As the first airport to offer air service between Los Angeles and New York, Grand Central Air Terminal quickly became the premier airport in southern California. Although the airport never became the manufacturing center its proponents envisioned, it nurtured the seeds of the aircraft industry in southern California. The first planes to bear the names of Jack Northrop and Howard Hughes were built at the Grand Central Air Terminal. Major C.C. Moseley operated a technical school at the airport, the Cal-Aero Technical Institute, which played a key role in the training of World War II pilots and mechanics. The airport also became the prime contractor in extensive maintenance overhaul programs at this time. However, after World War II, jet planes supplanted propeller aircraft and the airport's relatively short 3,400-foot runway (shortened from 3,800 feet after the war) was unable to accommodate modern aircraft. Although the Grand Central Aircraft Company remained the City's largest employer, it began declining throughout the 1950s. In 1959 the airport shut down. The 112-acre site of the Grand Central Air Terminal later opened as the Grand Central Industrial Center.

The Grand Central Air Terminal served as the focus of the community's aviation transportation system and played a significant role in Glendale's aviation history. The building is the last extant property in the City that conveys substantial historic significance and important association with the Glendale airport and Cal-Aero Technical Institute. Therefore, it appears eligible for individual listing in the National Register under Criterion A at the local level, as a physical record of events that helped shape the city of Glendale and for its associated aviation history. The Grand Central Air Terminal also appears to satisfy Criterion C for listing in the National Register at the local level for its exceptional application of Spanish Colonial Revival-style architecture with Zig-zag Moderne influences in the design of an airport terminal. In addition, the building is an excellent representative of early "simple" airport terminal design, which drew upon architectural forms previously established for building types associated with railroad transportation. The Glendale facility projected the image of a suburban railway station in both design and title "Grand Central Air Terminal." The Grand Central Air Terminal is listed on the Glendale Register of Historic Resources.