Preserving Our Past
The history of P. Flanigan & Sons, Inc. is a great story of business evolution.
In March of 1885, Irish immigrant Patrick Flanigan began his one-man enterprise in Baltimore’s contracting field and built Baltimore’s first sewer system. Patrick developed a team and together they enjoyed success in the private sewerage market, as well as becoming experts in street excavation and repair. With these core competencies, Flanigan was the natural leader for rebuilding after the 1904 Great Baltimore Fire.
Asphalt paving was introduced for street surfacing in 1908 and we purchased our first asphalt plant. Committing to using this safer alternative demonstrated our early approach to sustainability.
When the “Good Roads” movement in 1911 led to Patrick’s role as a delegate, the company grew as a highway construction authority and invested in new technologies and equipment, including steamrollers and portable concrete mixers. Patrick’s natural inclination to innovate from opportunity formed its material place in the Flanigan process and laid the groundwork for the Flanigan philosophy.
Roaring street construction mirrored the Roaring 20’s boom years, and enabled Flanigan to continue paving the way with significant contracts. Confidence in Flanigan also earned us a privileged invitation to enter airport construction, and we rose to the challenge through joint ventures, creating the U.S. Army’s Aberdeen Proving Grounds and Camp Meade. Our reputation for making sure that our products and our people performed as agreed sustained our steady growth and enabled us to become a leading supplier of superior products and services.
The subsequent and demanding war years keenly demonstrate our resiliency and strategic problem-solving success. Although the construction industry essentially halted, Flanigan grew in many other ways – the most important being our war effort contribution. Flanigan was recruited to employ a secret British process to manufacture and install asphaltic armor plate on the super–structures of merchant ships – proudly earning us the U.S. Maritime Commission “M” award for superior performance.
Dynamic construction markets since have honored Flanigan with participation and prime contractor status in many exceptional and important projects including streets, highways, toll facilities, port facilities and airports:
Proud of Our Present
Our progress at Flanigan continues today because of the dedication of five family generations who have grown up in the firm and worked in every capacity to insure a complete and thorough understanding of our products and capabilities.
This extensive network of experience has taught us to listen to you — and our comprehensive knowledge base enables us to understand what works for you, when you need it and how you need it. Further, it insures we are in position to deliver on our commitment to successfully manage quality manufacturing and construction in the public and private markets while exceeding your satisfaction.
We are also strongly appreciative to countless public agencies for the fair, impartial administration of our contracts — their even-handed administration of our work has sustained our company for many years. Our familiarity with their practice, process and requirements positions Flanigan as a leading partner and facilitates our future growth.
Protecting Our Future
Patrick Flanigan brought a driving desire to succeed in business because he cared. He cared about his employees. He cared about his city. He cared about his customers and doing the job right. He cared about doing the job better. He cared about making decisions that would have long-term sustainable positive impact — on materials, on techniques, on job sites, on contracts and on the company. This drive to make a difference is entrenched deeply at Flanigan to this day. Because we still care today as much as Patrick did then, we invest considerably in our future as evidenced by our recycling initiatives and sustainable aggregate materials development.