History

1880

• Seaman John Nooter sails from Amsterdam. His experience in high-rigging on sea ships prompts him to take a job as a rigger for John O’Brien Boiler Works in St. Louis.

1896

• The John Nooter Boiler Works Company is founded. Profits from painting lead to the purchase of a sheet-metal bending roll, and John Nooter begins fabricating stacks and repairing boilers.

1897

• Tom Ryan leaves his position with the John O’Brien Boiler Works Company to work with his old friend, John Nooter, to erect a large stack on the Old Lindell Hotel in St. Louis.

1900

• John Eschmann, Sr., a boilermaker and rigger, joins the John Nooter Boiler Works Company.

1902

• The John Nooter Boiler Works Company opens a shop on Main Street in St. Louis.

1904

• St. Louis World’s Fair.

1910

• John Nooter Boiler Works Company begins manufacturing their signature horizontal return tubular boilers.

1911

• John Nooter Boiler Works Company erects a new plant at 1400 South Second Street, the site of the current Nooter Construction Headquarters.

1924

• Nooter purchases its first electric welding machine.

1944

• John Nooter Boiler Works Company is awarded the Army-Navy “E” Award for excellence in the production of tanks for culturing life-saving penicillin, as well as for the construction of equipment for the synthetic rubber, 100-octane gasoline, and explosives industries.

1952

• The Metalizing division of the Nooter Corporation becomes St. Louis Metalizing and moves into its new facility at 625 S. Sarah in St. Louis.

1954

• Nooter and Missouri Boiler merge.

1955

• Nooter Corporation crafts incubation tanks for the mass production of the polio vaccine.

1956

• Local 27 Boilermakers build a solid-gold tank as part of the first “portable” nuclear power plant. Metal for the tank and cast cost $14,000 (over $122,600 in 2021 dollars).

1960

• Nooter Corporation constructs one of the nation’s first polysonic wind tunnels for McDonnell Aircraft Corporation (Boeing).
• Nooter constructs four experimental space capsules for NASA’s Project Mercury.

1961

• Nooter completes its first refinery tower job in Tulsa, Oklahoma.
• Nooter begins using high-frequency sound to test for invisible flaws in the construction of vessels for the nuclear industry.

1964

• Nooter breaks records, constructing a 133-foot-high prill tower in nine weeks.
• Nooter is contracted by the U.S. Navy to construct deep-diving titanium submarine hulls.
• Nooter constructs 5400 feet of rolled and welded plate pipe to form the caisson section of the Poplar Street Bridge, crossing the Mississippi River in St. Louis.

1965

• Nooter Corporation constructs a barge loading facility on the Mississippi River, near the main plant, between Rutger and Miller Streets.
• Nooter becomes one of the leading manufacturers of commercial brewing equipment with the introduction of Anheuser-Busch’s stainless steel STRAINMASTER.

1967

• Nooter builds the world’s largest acid plant in Louisiana.
• Unidynamics and Boeing tap Nooter craftsmen to construct the stainless steel foils for the Tucumcari Hydrofoil for the United States Navy.

1972

• Nooter begins constructing Monsanto’s Enviro-Chem equipment for pollution control.

1978

• Nooter Corporation implements its first computer-aided design system, run by a room-sized computer system.

1980

• Nooter Corporation opens new field facilities in Baton Rouge, Louisiana, and Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.

1981

• Nooter is contracted by the U.S. Navy to construct deep-diving titanium submarine hulls.

1982

• A 186-foot long and over 545,000 pounds, 13-foot diameter tower breaks all records for the largest shipment ever to leave St. Louis by rail.

1983

• The largest vessel ever to be post-weld-treated (stress relieved) by Nooter is erected in New Augusta, Mississippi.

1984

• Nooter develops one of the industry’s first mobile field testing labs for welding.

1991

• Nooter receives the “E Star” Award for exporting by the United States Department of Commerce.
• A 120,000 lb. reactor vessel fabricated by Nooter is shipped overseas to BP Chemical in England using the world’s largest cargo plane, the AN-124 Rusian.

1994

• Nooter develops a revolutionary new process used in the fabrication of stainless steel polymerization.

1996

• Nooter creates a specialized “clean-room” used to reduce weld contamination on specialty fabrication projects.

1997

• Nooter is awarded the first-ever ASME Division 3 Stamp Accreditation.
• Nooter participates in the construction of one of the first facilities to produce fine paper grades from recycled materials.

1998

• Nooter joins with St. Louis Refrigerator Car Company to develop a specialized rail car used to transport the largest turbine in power generation history.

1999

• Boeing and Raytheon tap Nooter for the fabrication of the Delta IV Launch Complex Ground Support System at NASA’s Cape Canaveral Air Station.

2001

• Nooter Construction Power Services secures a maintenance contract for PSEG.
• Nooter Construction replaces the regenerator head, cyclones, piping, and 3rd stage separator for Conoco.

2003

• Nooter Construction acquires RMF Industrial Contracting, Inc. and renames the company RMF NOOTER LLC.