From 1932 to 1945, Higgins’ offices were located at 1755 St. Charles Ave., now the site of Houston’s Restaurant. Higgins, born in Nebraska in 1886, moved to New Orleans to manage a lumber company.

Each piece of the replica Higgins boat being made for a memorial in France was laser-cut and labeled with a part number. They were welded together at Duo Lift Manufacturing Company in Columbus ...

In addition to patrol-torpedo boats – one of which, PT-305, has been restored by the Museum – the New Orleans-based company churned out thousands of Land Craft, Vehicle, Personnel (LCVP) boats.

Higgins built over 20,000 LCVP boats, in a number of variations, over the course of the war, from his factory in New Orleans. Incredibly, by 1943, it was said that nine out of ten vessels in the ...

The Higgins boat, known as an LCVP, took US and allied troops ashore across Europe and the Pacific. ... Higgins remained at the helm of his company until he had a stroke and died in 1952.

Since 2004, when Higgins first came on, the company had about 22 employees. Today it has 55. During that time, the business has grown from one location in Waterville to four today, counting the ...