Our History
The Company's founder, John R. Wingfield, Sr. got his first job doing electrical work because he was the right size. At the age of 15 he was hired by a Knoxville, TN. electrical contractor to help him wire houses. He was hired because his small stature permitted him to work in tight spaces. He worked in Bristol, TN. and West Virginia wiring glassworks, Pittsburg, PA. wiring coal mines and Washington, D.C., where he wired the old Navy Hospital. During World War I he wired three military camps.
After the war he spent 18 years in New York City working for its third largest electrical firm, Lord Electric. There he worked as the Essex House, then the largest apartment building in New York City. Mr Wingfield did the electrical engineering for New York's first television studio, Studio Six, on the sixth floor of Radio City Music Hall. He did the electrical engineering for the City Farmers Bank which had 54 floors above ground and 5 below. Another of his New York projects was the New York Daily News Building.
During World War II, Mr. Wingfield came to Alabama. He oversaw electrical work on a powder plant built in Childersburg. He directed 1,600 workers there. Next he went to Oak Ridge, TN. where he directed 2,200 workers. He also worked in South America during this time.
After WWII, he returned to Alabama, and Goodwater, where he and his family had lived while he worked in Childersburg. He worked for Rust Engineering until he retired. After retiring from Rust Engineering in 1960, Mr. Wingfield began building control panels in the basement of his home in Goodwater, Alabama. A family decision was made to go into business and the company was incorporated in 1962.
