Born to Build Blog

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.

O’Shea recently participated in Sangamon-Menard Schools’ Multi-Craft Core Curriculum (MC3) program during fall 2019. The MC3 is a nationally recognized apprenticeship-readiness training curriculum that offers hands-on-learning and a pathway toward a construction career apprenticeship.

O’Shea’s “Iron Man,” a.k.a. Tim VanBrooker, is “officially” retired. O’Shea Team News sat down with Tim and Mike O’Shea to talk about a few career highlights.

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.

In John Adams’ family, if you were old enough to carry a tool, you got to come along on the job.

John’s grandfather, Norbert, grew up on a farm and, by necessity, taught himself general construction. When he saw there was a need in the area, he began a residential construction company, which he operated for 40 years.