With the outbreak of World War II and the economy recovered from the last decade, the 1940’s brought about a wave of change for the nation. Higley Construction was able to continue building throughout the region and grow its reputation. The 1940s would be a decade of exponential growth for the company.

Much like this year, the company went through a logo change debuting the new logo in 1940. The logo included “Construction Managers” in addition to General Contractors, establishing a key service that is the largest percentage of our work today!

With the war overtaking the first half of the decade, industrial and government projects were major markets for Higley Construction.  Over half of our contracts were awarded to industrial projects in just the first 5 years of the decade, including projects for companies like National Screw and Manufacturing, Cleveland Graphite Bronze Company, and Williard Storge Battery Co. In 1942, Higley completed work on the largest defense plant in the region, Cleveland Pneumatic Aerol.

Once the war was over, the company saw a boom in the retail space, completing over 200 projects in the market throughout the 1940s. These included stores such as the Bond Store, the Higbee department store, and Sears Roebuck. Another market that continued to make an impact on the company was higher education. As a generation was returning from the war, colleges and universities invested in expanding and renovating their campuses. This allowed Higley to work for educational institutions that we still complete work for today - including Baldwin Wallace University, Case University, and Oberlin College.

In 1944, the company received its 2,000^th contract for the Greater Cleveland Red Cross service building renovations. Albert Higley wrote a letter to the company highlighting this achievement as well as the company’s commitment to respect and excellence. A 1946 article in The Cleveland Press highlighted the same sentiment about Albert and the company, “But, successful as he has been in putting up buildings fashioned of brick and steel and mortar… Ab Higley has built character and leadership, and sympathetic consideration for his fellow men.”

We have always been a company that goes beyond bricks and mortar.