The History of P & W Builders

“You can’t go anywhere in a 50-mile radius and not see a house built by P & W Builders,” insists Whitehurst. About 16 million Americans fought over four years in WWII and almost 7 million over 4 years in the Korean war. When they all came home to start their families, very little housing was available. In 1954, two best friends in their mid-twenties saw this need and decided that they could do something about it. N.E.(Gene) Whitehurst and Karol Ponicsan started P & W Builders. It was an instant success. Cars lined up for blocks to see P & W's line up of model homes. P & W built their reputation of quality construction by only buying quality materials and having quality people in their company. In 1976, P & W Builders built Airport Lumber Co. to keep available the proper materials for the new homes. Gene would often say that he was proud of the fact that he could drive into about any town in central Illinois and point out a P & W built home. Now here we are, ending our 7th decade of building quality custom-built homes. Gene and Karol are no longer with us, but Gene's two sons Nelson and David Whitehurst and son-in-law Bob Wilkes are continuing Gene and Karol's legacy. The three brothers are assisted in the construction process by superintendent, John Lee. Joe Menefee assists with his knowledge of construction management and sales. Each of the three owners bring over 50 years of homebuilding knowledge and are looking forward to showing you what makes P & W Builders your best custom home building option.