Bill Williams, seated, with his family. From left, Carrie Jones, Billy and Kelly Baumgarth, Doug Noah, John and Mary Williams, Kane Smith and Matt Noah, who is kneeling.
Bill Williams, seated, with his family. From left, Carrie Jones, Billy and Kelly Baumgarth, Doug Noah, John and Mary Williams, Kane Smith and Matt Noah, who is kneeling.
Bill and Mary Williams began their general contracting business in Cedar Hill in 1976.
Since the beginning, Bill said, he and his wife have not only prioritized building great custom homes, but also family and customer satisfaction.
Their business, Bill Williams Construction Co., is at 8410 Wolf Road. Over the past five decades, Bill and Mary have built seven subdivisions, several churches and countless homes and additions around Jefferson County and the surrounding area. They said most of their work is concentrated in the western portion of the county, in Cedar Hill, House Springs, Dittmer and Eureka, but the company has also built in Festus and Hillsboro, along with sites in St. Louis and Franklin counties.
Bill, 82, said he’s worked as a union carpenter for more than 60 years. After working under another contractor for several years, he decided to start a construction business with two high school buddies, Elden Wilhelms and Bill Rhodes, who both retired in recent years.
“I started doing work on the side because I liked to keep busy,” he said. “After hours, I started doing remodeling work over in Cedar Hill Lakes and built it up to the point where I could stay busy just doing remodel work.”
Mary, 80, said the business started at their kitchen table, working on bid packages and paying the bills. She said their neighbor, Joyce McGraw, helped with taxes in the early days.
The construction company has had as many as 50 employees at one time, including electricians, plumbers, carpenters and others, Mary said. Now, the company has 13 employees, and the rest of the work is subcontracted out.
Two employees have been with the company for more than 40 years, and three have been with them for more than 30 years, Mary said.
“We’re very fortunate,” she said.
Bill said he hasn’t had to advertise his business in more than 25 years, thanks to the reputation he’s built in the community as a responsible, quality builder.
“People come to us already feeling comfortable, rather than going to a contractor they haven’t heard anything about,” he said. “People will come in, and the first thing they say is, ‘Everybody we talked to said to come see Bill.’”
Bill and Mary recently celebrated 60 years of marriage. The pair met at a bus stop in St. Louis, near where they both lived at the time. Mary grew up in the Hill neighborhood in St. Louis, and Bill was staying with his sister in a place nearby when they met. He grew up on a farm in Ellington and moved to St. Louis after high school for work.
“As soon as I met (Mary), I knew that was it,” Bill said.
“He did; I wasn’t sure just yet,” joked Mary.
The couple has five children: Mark, their oldest, who owns and operates a construction company in Florida; Kelly Baumgarth, their oldest daughter, who works at the family business, communicating with subcontractors and ordering supplies; John, the company’s licensed septic installer; Carrie Jones, their youngest, who handles permits and meets with customers on home selections; and Doug Noah, their “bonus kid,” who also works at the company.
Bill said Noah was 17 and living in Dittmer at a boys home that could no longer afford to look after Noah, who was working for him as part of a school apprenticeship program at the time.
“They had to let him go, and he was living in a car,” Bill said.
“We took him in, and he’s been with us ever since,” Mary added. “We are grandma and grandpa to his kids, and mom and dad to him.”
Bill and Mary have 15 grandchildren and seven great-grandchildren, with another on the way.
Kelly’s husband, Billy, is chief supervisor at the company and works closely with Bill to provide customers with breakdown sheets with the costs and details for their projects.
“When Billy or I meet with customers, we’ll sit down and do a breakdown sheet that has everything from excavating to final cleanup,” Bill said. “After we get done, we usually drive out to the property so I can see it and see how it lies, so I know how to bid it. You want to get all the details you can so there are no hidden costs and the customer knows what’s going on.”
Mary said their business started with just home addition projects, gradually growing to include foundations, new homes and entire subdivisions.
Bill Williams Construction has built homes in Dutch Creek Farms, Wedgewood Village, Sennawood Village and Barrington Oaks in Cedar Hill; Echo Lakes and Olde Mill Estates in Byrnes Mill; Fox Run in Eureka and Raintree Plantation in Hillsboro.
The company recently completed the Pine Hollow Farms wedding venue off Hwy. W in Eureka and renovated the former House Springs Lions Club community hall, now the Heritage Weddings & Events building.
“When Bill was 2 years old, he got polio,” Mary said. “Through many years of surgeries and everything, the doctors told his parents, ‘Make sure you get him a college education because he won’t do anything but a desk job.’”
“But you can see him outwork a lot of the young guys on job sites,” said their daughter Carrie. “If we can get somebody to lift him up into the high lift, he would be out here (on the job sites).”
Bill, who no longer works on job sites, working from home instead, said he had a tried-and-true system that allowed him for many years to work on homes and do what he loves.
“I couldn’t climb up there (into the construction equipment) because of my polio leg and stuff, so they would put me in a skid steer bucket and take me up,” Bill said. “My arms worked fine, so.”
“There’s no fear in that man,” Carrie said.
Bill said he’s proud to offer customized homes to Jefferson County residents, adding that people who choose Bill Williams Construction to build their starter homes often return and even refer their children who are now looking to build their own homes to him.
“What I’ve always tried to do is quality work and have happy customers,” Bill said.
“He’s very modest; we’re all very proud,” Carrie said.
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