Site of Higgins' Industries at Delgado Trade School
On this site between August 1941 and August 1945, the City Park Plant of Higgins Industries, Incorporated mass produced more than 12,000 landing craft and approximately 200 PT boats for the Allied Forces. The Higgins landing boats revolutionized modern warfare. An invading army could transport thousands of men and hundreds of tons of equipment swiftly through the surf to less-fortified beaches, thus eliminating the need for established harbors. The boats built on the site made D-Day landings at Normandy and the landings at Iwo Jima, Guadalcanal, Tarawa, Okinawa and thousands of lesser-known assaults possible. These same craft were later used in the Military conflicts in Korea and Vietnam.
President Dwight D. Eisenhower once referred to the company's founder, Andrew Jackson Higgins, as the "man who won the war for us." Higgins, in turn, recognized the contribution of the Delgado Trades School. He stated, "We can't use ordinary hammer and saw carpenters, but we can use Delgado men." The importance of what Andrew Higgins, the "Delgado men" and the thousands of other Higgins employees accomplished on this site in helping to secure the Allied victory shall long be remembered.