The Hitchcock Naval Air Station was one of the eight blimp bases established in WWII. Like the other one guarding the Gulf of Mexico, at Houma, Louisiana, Hitchcock only had one hangar, and did not continue to be a military base for long after the war. The base, located near Galveston, Texas, was sold as surplus in 1949, and purchased by a well-known Houston oilman, John Whitfield Mecom, who used the hangar and other buildings to service half-track vehicles used in the Korean War. In 1961 a hurricane damaged the wooden hangar, and it was demolished in 1962. Only the concrete portions of the hangar remain, including two pairs of towers which used to hold the 150-foot-tall doors. Half of the blimp hangar site has been covered over by a low steel shed, and operated as Blimp Base Storage Company. Much of the site is used for open air industrial and equipment storage, including things like electrical wind farm blades and parts, on their way to the interior of Texas. Another part of the base is an auto racetrack. The old headquarters building, identical to those at some other blimp bases, has been converted into a private home, with a swimming pool in the back yard.