Levingston Shipbuilding Company and Edward T. Malloy

The postwar Levingston built bigger and stranger things. By the Orange Leader's account, it delivered three Kennedy Class ferries, each 297 feet long, for Staten Island service in 1964 and 1965, and launched the 611-foot, 36,000-ton bulk carrier Pride of Texas in 1981. The company was sold in 1977, and Ed Paden bought the yard in 1982. Wikipedia lists the drillship Glomar Java Sea, built in the mid-1970s for Global Marine, and the jack-up Diamond M Gem, built for Diamond M, among its rigs, and says Levingston was the only U.S. builder of all five rig types.

What the plaque says

Levingston Shipbuilding Company and Edward T. Malloy In 1859, three brothers, Samuel, David and John Levingston, arrived in Orange from Ireland and purchased an existing shipyard, where they built wooden ships for more than thirty years. The son of Samuel Levingston, "Captain" George Levingston, established his own shipbuilding business in 1919-1920. In 1930, Levingston purchased five acres at Front and Mill Streets in Orange, enlarging his operation, and Levingston Shipbuilding Company operated from this location fro the remainder of its existence. Incorporation in 1933 sustained the company during the slow economic times of the 1930s. Edward T. Malloy was hired in 1939 as a general manager, and stayed with the company for thirty-seven years, becoming president of the company when he bought the controlling interest in 1945. World War II brought a vast influx of business--the company had begun construction of military vessels before the United States entered the war, and continued to be a major supplier for the Army and Navy during the duration. Levingston Shipbuilding delivered its first vessel for the war effort, a 530-ton steel tugboat named Tuscarora on December 13, 1941. Between 1941 and 1945, Levingston built and delivered a total of 160 vessels for the U.S. Navy and U.S. Army including tugs, tankers, barges and ocean going rescue tugs. After World War II, Levingston Shipbuilding changed with the economic times and became a worldwide leader in the design, engineering and construction of off-shore drilling rigs, jack-up platforms, and self-propelled drilling ships. Levingston Shipbuilding was the only U.S. builder of all five types of offshore drilling rigs until it cesed operations in 1985. (2008)

Where it stands

Worth the stop nearby

• Stark Museum of Art — 0.6 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 — 1.5 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 — 20 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 — 22 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

• U. S. S. Aulick — steps away
• Office of the Supervisor of Shipbuilding and Consolidated Steel Corporation — steps away
• Riverside Addition: World War II Housing in Orange — steps away
• Weaver Shipbuilding — steps away