Blog

Springfield has had a romance with chili  - or “chilli” as the Dew Parlor misspelled it in 1909, forever confusing local writers and editors – since the late 1890s.

In 1937, O’Shea Builders founder John O’Shea got a contract that made the local paper. He and his son, Harold, were building an “eight room Georgian colonial” home at the “angle of Willemore and Wiggins Avenue” for local dentist Robert T. Curren.

If we could travel back to when O’Shea Builders’ founder -- John O’Shea (Bud’s grandfather) - was a kid, we’d experience a holiday different from today’s. 

Kathy Keefe has been a history buff for a long time, so when she moved into her older Craftsman bungalow at 2109 North Seventh in Springfield, she tried to learn about its construction.

In 1956, business was thriving, so Harold O’Shea and Bud bought two, forty-feet wide adjoining lots at 1941 South 10 ½ Street. They built a 2,700 square foot building, then a 4,000 square foot addition in the back. “We occupied the front for the warehouse and shop, and leased the space in the rear,” Bud says.

Christmas was always a celebration in the O’Shea home, according to Bud O’Shea, Chief Executive Officer. He and his brothers recalled some memories of that holiday from when they were young for the book, “Born to Build.”

As soon as they were able, the younger O’Shea generations helped the family business. By the 1970s, Bud’s children -- David, Maureen, Linda, and Mike -- started working when each was old enough, usually in high school.

It’s rare that a construction project creates awareness for a disease, but that’s what happened in 2012. It was a first for O’Shea.

On August 14, 1945, President Harry S. Truman announced that the Japanese had surrendered, ending the six-year long World War whose battles covered much of the globe and killed about 405,000 Americans.

Harold O’Shea, father of Chief Executive Officer Bud O’Shea, loved baseball. He played baseball with his four sons and took them to major league games

This year is not the first time O’Sheas have dealt with a pandemic or epidemic. About one hundred years ago, O’Shea Builders’ founder -- Bud O’Shea’s grandfather John O’Shea -- dealt with an epidemic and pandemic within ten years.

During WWI, the federal government struggled to provide enough food for troops overseas. So, it encouraged citizens to grow their own food to help, and the so-called “Victory Garden” or “War Garden” was born. It was rekindled during WWII when the government went a step further and rationed food.

Life is like central Illinois weather – it changes in the blink of an eye. It did the night of March 12, 2006. 

The O'Shea family's local roots go back to at least 1860, the year Abraham Lincoln was elected president and moved his office to what is now the Old State Capitol to accommodate the droves of people wanting to see him.

The O’Shea family has been building churches longer than it’s had a construction business. According to family lore, Timothy O’Brien, the uncle of O’Shea Builders founder John O’Shea, built Springfield’s first St. Agnes Church and taught John carpentry.