H i s t o r y

Our business started in 1912, when Oscar Fritjof Paulson (Fred) had enough of working for his father-in-law Henry Jones, a building contractor who had been a job superintendent at the Worlds Fair in St. Louis, MO.

Fred was born in Monsos, Norway, a town in the Arctic Circle, and came to the United States at the age of 7 by way of Minneapolis. He later worked for a man named Henry Jones, who would become his father-in-law. Henry Jones headed for Cedar Rapids, IA, where a friend, Ed LaPlant, was in the process of clearing some houses off Fourth Street to make room for the Rock Island Railroad. Jones urged Paulson to come to Cedar Rapids - to go into business with him. He finally decided to come, and landed on Fourth Street at 1:30 a.m. December 19, 1908.

Florence Jones, who would become Fred's wife, didn't like Cedar Rapids and wanted to return to Minneapolis. She told him one day they should get married and leave town. So they went to Marion and got a license and was married by the Justice of the Peace on March 15, 1909, and moved back to Minneapolis. Later that year Florence became pregnant and wanted to be close to her mother when the baby came. So they moved back to Cedar Rapids, this time for good. Fred went back to work with Henry Jones.

A carpenter by trade who cut his eye teethe on the original Radison Hotel in Minneapolis. Fred was a hard worker and earned his nickname "Race Hoarse", for he could hang more doors in a day then any other carpenter in the area.

Their first job was Johnson School in 1910. The following year the Magnus hotel was built. The pair worked together in building Hayes School when Paulson decided to go into business for himself. And O. F. Paulson Construction was founded in 1912.

For the first 10 years we concentrated on building houses and then went into commercial and industrial buildings. During the 1920's boom we had a number of fine buildings. Banks, Hotels, Apartments, PackingHouses, Shrine Temples, Hospitals, and the most original at the time, The Memorial Building on May's Island. Today, the structure houses City Hall, The Coliseum, Armory and Magistrate's Court.

The crash of 1929 put a damper on the construction business for sometime. PWA and WPA at least got things going for awhile. During World War II we concentrated on PowerHouse work for the Iowa Electric Light and Power Company. After the war Fred's son Ted returned from three and a half years as an officer in the Corps of Engineers in New Guinea and the Philippines to finish college and internship for architects and engineers licensing. Since then we have been fortunate in being involved in all kinds of building construction work. Air Pollution Control, Water Treatment, Sewage Disposal, Shoring and Underpinning and many other uncommon construction challenges. The next generation is on board and we are looking forward for new fields to conquer.

Since 1912 our firm has constructed hundreds homes in Cedar Rapids, nearly 20 Schools and numerous churches and other buildings.

We are now the oldest General Contractors in Cedar Rapids, IA and the Charter Member of the Master Builders of Iowa, which is a branch of the Associated General Contractors of America.