Captain George M. Levingston

The yard Levingston built through the Depression became the Navy's leading source of ocean tugs. He started on Moss Avenue in 1919, moved to the east end of Front Avenue in 1930 and incorporated Levingston Shipbuilding Company in 1933. Its first wartime contract was the 530-ton steel tug Tuscarora, launched December 13, 1941. From 1941 to 1945 the yard launched 160 vessels for the Navy and Army, among them tugs, tankers and rescue ships. Levingston sold the company in 1945 to Edgar W. Brown Jr. It built offshore drilling rigs after the war and closed in 1985.

What the plaque says

Captain George M. Levingston (Feb 25, 1874-Oct. 27, 1971) A licensed river captain and the son of a pioneer area shipbuilder, George M. Levingston was a leader in the development of Orange's shipbuilding industry. In 1933, after years of experience in the local shipyards, he formed the Levingston Shipbuilding Company, which was to become a major Gulf Coast operation under his direction. In addition to his influence on the area's economic growth, Captain Levingston also served on the Orange City Council in the 1920s. Recorded - 1983

Where it stands

Worth the stop nearby

• Stark Museum of Art — 0.5 mi
  A white-marble museum in Orange built by the Stark Foundation and opened in 1978, holding Western art, American Indian art, Audubon's Birds of America and Steuben glass, free to enter.
• Shangri La Botanical Gardens and Nature Center — 1.3 mi
  More than 250 acres on Adams Bayou, begun by H. J. Lutcher Stark in 1937, with garden rooms, a cypress-tupelo swamp, a heronry blind and free pontoon tours in season.
• Museum of the Gulf Coast — 19 mi
  Port Arthur's regional museum in a former bank building: fossils, Native Americans, the petroleum story, a 125-foot history mural and Halls of Fame for musicians, athletes and artists.
• Spindletop-Gladys City Boomtown Museum — 21 mi
  A re-created oil boomtown on the Lamar University campus, with a derrick, period shops, a 1941 granite monument and an optional re-enactment of the January 1901 Lucas gusher.

More markers nearby

• David Robert Wingate — steps away
• Dr. Samuel M. Brown — steps away
• Evergreen Cemetery — steps away
• John Thomas Stark — steps away