From the Moffett Field Historical Society:
Moffett field came into being as a result of neighboring communities banding together for a common good. Mrs. Laura Whipple of Niles spearheaded the effort. The communities purchased 1000 acres of land for $476,679 and sold it to the Navy for $1. On 3 August 1930, the Navy secured the deed and the process of converting this acreage to an airfield began.
Construction began on 5 October 1931, with the driving of the first stake. The total expenditure for NAS Sunnyvale, as it was then called, was $4,993,550. The new west coast lighter-than-air facility was commissioned on 12 April 1933 when it was only 80% completed. Its runway was named Moffett Field on 18 May 1933 to commemorate Admiral William A Moffett, who perished, along with 72 others, in a crash of the dirigible USS Akron on 4 April 1933. NAS Sunnyvale was renamed NAS Moffett Field on 20 April 1042. It was one of the few Navy bases named for a person and not a location.
In 1939 NACA, now known as "NASA Ames Research Center", was established on 365 acres adjacent to Moffett Field. This site was chosen because of available electric power, an operating air station with a climate ideal for flight research and a nearby university community. Today NASA has 50 research facilities, 18 advanced flight simulators and 14 wind tunnel complexes, including the world's largest wind tunnel with an 80 by 120 foot test section.
Through time, Moffett Field has hoisted the Army Air Corps, Navy, NATS, MATS, NASA, a lighter-than-air squadron of sub chasing blimps, screaming supersonic jets and strange experimental aircraft. In Moffett's final Navy days, it was the Pacific command center for Orion P-3 sub hunters. NASA is now custodian for the base.
And, from the Moffett Field 60th Anniversary, 1933-1993 publication:
Moffett Field: From airships to space shuttles
The Bay Area was still a fledgling region in 1930, lacking many of the characteristics for which it is known today. The Golden Gate Bridge was still just a dream. Alcatraz was known as a fort not a prison. And the area that would one day be recognized as Silicon Valley consisted primarily of fields and orchards.
It was with great anticipation that just before Christmas that year residents waited for word about the possibility of a major new addition to the growing San Francisco Bay.
The wait ended on Dec. 12 when the news arrived from the East Coast. A new air base would be built on a strip of land between Mountain View and Sunnyvale at a development cost of $5 million. The base would be home to the largest aircraft the world had yet seen - a dirigible called the Macon.
The base, which would become known as Moffett Field Naval Air Station, would bring much-needed jobs, income and prominence to this section of Northern California. But the news would mean much more in the long run, as the San Jose Mercury Herald noted in 1931: "It meant also that industries allied to aviation will spring up like mushrooms, each bringing its own payroll. It means in short that San Jose and the bay region are on the threshold of the most glorious era of prosperity in their History."
Crowds have played a significant role in the air base's colorful history. Large numbers of residents flocked to Mountain View to witness the visit of the massive Akron in 1932. They returned a year later to see the Akron's sister, the Macon, arrive a its new home in Hangar One.
They came year after year to see the Blue Angels perform during Moffet's post-World War II era. And they gathered again today to mark the transfer of Moffett Field's operation from the U.S. Navy to NASA.
Today's transfer of Moffett is a milestone for what has been, and promises to remain, "a glorious era of prosperity" for the Peninsula.
The California State Military Museum in Sacramento also has an extensive web page on the history of Moffett Field.