About Us
Standard Plumbing Company History
In 1923, Harry Berger founded Standard Plumbing at 106 North 3rd. Street. In May of 1923 we installed our first coal fed, gravity fired furnace in Manhattan at the home of Mr. Schultz. Unfortunately his address has been misplaced over the last 88 years. With our name established we captured our first sizable job of installing the plumbing in the new Wareham hotel being built. Yes, that Wareham hotel on Poyntz Avenue that is still standing today!
As the Great Depression and dust bowl days settled over Kansas, Mr. Berger decided to that his wife would run the business while he went to Alaska to pan for his would-be gold fortune. Needless to say, he returned to help her run the business and it grew as times got better. In 1941 World War II had just begun and Paul Anderson joined the company as an apprentice plumber. He worked for Standard Plumbing for 16 years at which time he purchased the company from Mr. Berger in 1957.
Over the next few years, both his boys Rick and Dale joined their father in the family business. In 1958 we installed the first central air conditioning unit in Manhattan at the home office of Dr. Splichal at 631 Humboldt. Keeping on pace with technology, we installed our first Lennox heat pump in 1977. Standard Plumbing has always been at the cutting edge of current home-comfort technology. In January of 1988 Rick purchased Dale Anderson’s half interest in the business.
In 2004 the company was sold to four employees. Three of those still remain in place today and serve as its Board of Directors and supervise the company’s day to day operations. The current owners are Dick O’Neil, Clark Flynn and John Shortsleeves. The current owners are dedicated to preserving the past integrity, and customer-care driven service work that has kept our company alive for the past 88 years. We are looking forward to our 100 year anniversary and hope you can be a part of that celebration, and also become part of our client base.
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