Our Walk through History:

    In 2009 the R.L. Whipple Company celebrated its 100th year of being in the construction business. Our building company was founded by the 27-year old civil engineer Robert L. Whipple, a graduate of the University of Vermont and Army veteran who rose to regimental commander in World War I. Colonel Whipple joined his company with J.B. Lowell in the twenties and Lowell-Whipple operated for about eight years until their friendly dissolution when both engineering and general-contracting firms continued separately. The R. L. Whipple Company was incorporated in 1956.

    Colonel Whipple remained active in the company until his death at age 78 in 1960. For the next 29 years his son, William J. Whipple, was president of the firm, a graduate of Yale University and the Harvard Business School. Successor management is well at Whipple’s for upon Bill’s retirement Christian S. Baehrecke, an engineer with the company since his graduation from WPI, led the organization until 1995. Thereupon Rodney A. White, who had joined our construction business in the sixties, took over the reins.

    In the beginning R.L. Whipple Company employed several building trades, from laborers and masons to iron workers and carpenters. The company’s own engineers provided many designs for projects as well as management and supervision. As the construction industry became more specialized, the firm concentrated more intently on best construction methods and efficient processes which for all our work evolved in excellence of construction management. Believing that good construction will always require exemplary performance and therefore a hands-on component, our employees are nowadays primarily carpenters as well as engineers, project managers and superintendents for our building projects. We have up to fifty employees. Nevertheless, on most projects we subcontract more than fifty percent of the work to specialty firms.

    As our office as well as the company’s warehouse are located in Worcester, so are most of the buildings which Whipple built during the past century. There are churches and temples like First Baptist or Beth Israel. There are schools and universities like the former Shepherd Knapp in Boylston and the new Bancroft campus on Shore Drive or WPI’s Higgins and Kavin Halls, Clark’s Performing Arts Center or Auditorium or the Student Pub for Holy Cross. There are sport facilities like the former Lincoln Lanes or the City’s swimming pool at Maloney Field. Building industrial facilities was our bread and butter from the days of Crompton Knowles and Standard Foundry to much work at Wyman Gordon or Norton’s to still nowadays for Morgan Construction. We built the research facility for Riley Stoker on Middle River, the foundations for their first electric furnaces at Standard Foundry, the biggest press foundation for Wyman’s in Grafton and the super-long and deep, next to the river concrete base with hundreds of boltings for a milling machine at Rodney Hunt in Orange, Massachusetts. We built banks, restaurants and renovated facilities on Main Street. We had always a keen interest in historic restoration like for Salisbury Mansion or the Gough House in Boylston. We have worked for American Antiquarian and in many fine homes in Worcester and vicinity. The 1976 rebirth of historic Mechanic’s Hall was our job, and when, twenty years later, its massive wood trusses got a bit tired, we reinforced the 1858 structure with high-tension steel rods without any noticeable change to this beautiful building.

    There have been many changes over the past century. Just as Worcester’s industry has largely given way to greater orientation in technology and service, so too have many of our jobs. Nowadays our projects in the medical field demand our greatest attention and we are pleased of what we have done and continue to perform for UMass Memorial in many of their facilities. There are our operating rooms at Memorial or the renovations of its many patient suites, a new pharmacy or the digital mammography department at Hahnemann or the new power plant addition or the window-façade restoration on the UMass campus. Yet there is also other work, like the new offices for the Chamber of Commerce at 446 Main, the new lobby for Sovereign Bank, or the restoration of Levi Lincoln Memorial Hall at City Hall and the upcoming alterations to the City Manager’s office area. And then there are the most unusual jobs, so special perhaps, due to its details, working with vendors locally and abroad and having a strict limitation as to working time, like the stained glass restoration and protective window panels for St Joseph’s Chapel of the Holy Cross.

    In summary, Whipple Construction has served and continues to work in commercial, institutional and industrial construction, on new buildings as well as in renovations and maintenance for private clients and in public works. We specialize nowadays in hospital and medical facilities and in the restoration of historic buildings.

    Over the years, our work has been recognized by many special awards, such as from the American Institute of Architects for Mechanics Hall or the academic building of the former Shepherd Knapp School, from Associated General Contractors for the International at Bolton or the Silver Hammer Award for Tuckerman Hall. Surely we are proud to receive almost annually the industry’s commendation for our safety record.

    We are proud of one hundred years of achievements, but never to rest on past laurels. We believe in our experience, the smarts gained from many jobs and situations, the stamina to tackle difficult tasks. We know that our clients want honesty, integrity and competence, and we are the people of this makeup. Building is our thing and we want to do the best possible job at it. However, being in business is also about relationships and people as our clients, and how we enjoy the large percentage of our repeat business. So, onward Whipple Construction, into tomorrow, the next year, decade and century.