TETERBORO, N.J. — There was a time when Teterboro Airport was the crown jewel of the New York region.

Charles Lindbergh often flew into the New Jersey airport, 12 miles northwest of Midtown Manhattan, to meet with the president of Wright Aeronautical, which built the engine that powered his historic trans-Atlantic flight. Amelia Earhart flew here to prepare for her own trans-Atlantic trip. The F-32, the world’s biggest passenger plane when it was built in 1930, roared to life at Teterboro, as did the Barling Bomber, then the largest American-made bomber.

“At that time, there was nothing but pride for having a facility like that,” said Shea Oakley, executive director of the Aviation Hall of Fame of New Jersey, which is on the airport’s grounds.

Today, Teterboro, the first airport in the metropolitan area when it opened in 1919, is more likely to conjure grimaces than pride. “Growing like a monster,” some neighbors say of the airport, which sits on 827 acres and handles general aviation, industry-speak for noncommercial flights. “Horrific” is a word used by others. The Port Authority of New York and New Jersey, which operates Teterboro, received more than 2,300 noise complaints about the airport in 2016 — an average of about one every four hours.