Historic Omaha

PAXTON &
VIERLING
STEEL
It is impossible to look at the Omaha Skyline
without acknowledging the contribution of
Paxton and Vierling Steel. Virtually any
structure of importance—buildings, hundreds
of bridges and highway overpasses, and railroad
bridges—were built with their steel products.
The Civic Auditorium, Mutual of Omaha, the
Ak-Sar-Ben Coliseum, Union Pacific Center, the
Zorinsky Federal Building, the Woodmen
Tower, and most recently, the First National
Bank Tower and portions of the new convention
center are only a few of the notable buildings
constructed with their steel columns and beams.
Founded in 1885, with only thirty
employees, by Omaha business pioneer
William Paxton, along with Chicago brothers
A.J. and Robert Vierling, Paxton & Vierling Iron
Works was the primary source of iron and steel
in Omaha. By the turn of the century, the
company became Paxton & Vierling Steel
Company. Omaha’s historic Jobbers Canyon
near the Missouri River, nearly a square mile of
towering red brick warehouses and
wholesalers, was built with PVS iron and steel.
In 1930 the Chicago Vierlings sent
employee Fred Owen to Omaha to help
manage PVS. With the stock market crash of
’29 and the ensuing Great Depression, Owen
was able to purchase the Vierling interest in
the business. Fred brought his son Edward F.
Owen into the company, who rose to become
chairman. In 1979 the reins were handed to
his eldest son, Robert E. Owen, who is
currently president of Paxton & Vierling Steel
and chairman of Owen Industries, which is
headquartered in Omaha.
Today, as part of Owen Industries, Paxton &
Vierling Steel is one of the primary steel
fabricators in the world. It employs more than
400 people, and annual sales are in excess of
$100 million. It produced more than ten
thousand tons of structural steel for the Quezon
Power Project in the Philippines and is
currently at work producing equivalent
tonnage for a nuclear waste facility in
Washington state. But PVS is only one of
Owen Industries’ divisions. A large network
of steel service centers and manufacturing
plants meet stringent production and schedule
requirements. Advanced technologies and stateof-the-art
equipment is standard in processing
steel for the manufacturing, agriculture,
railroad, and construction industries.
The Owen Foundation, established in
1957, has endowed $4.5 million to
scholarship funds and more than 50
community groups. The Foundation and
Owen family have invested generously in
Omaha and Nebraska by building facilities at
Mahoney State Park, and Omaha’s Henry
Doorly Zoo as well as helping renovate the
Omaha Community Playhouse. They donated
money to build Camp Owen at Platte River
State Park, and have nurtured the cultural
scene in Omaha by supporting Opera Omaha,
Boys and Girls Clubs of Omaha, Boy Scouts,
and the Omaha Millennium Lights Display.
✧
Above: Paxton & Vierling Iron Works and
its employees, 1886.
Below: The forty-five-story First National
Tower in Omaha, 2001.
BUILDING A GREATER OMAHA
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