John McShain was responsible for the reconstruction of the White House, the building of the Jefferson Memorial, the Pentagon and the John F Kennedy Centre amongst others ...
The man who built Washington
McShain with Ballymoss and Queen Mother at Ascot
His firm became one of the largest construction companies in the United States. In Philadelphia, John McShain was active in Republican Party politics. However, in Washington he maintained both business and social relationships with Democratic Presidents Franklin D. Roosevelt, Harry Truman, and John Kennedy. After the White House renovation was completed in 1951, John McShain began to have health problems. His doctor recommended that he take up horse racing as a hobby.
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I KILLARNEY Magazine
2021
In 1952 he purchased a stable with four horses in central New Jersey which he called Barclay Stables. McShain’s horses were extremely successful. In 1957, Ballymoss won the Irish Derby, the English St. Leger, the Coronation, the Eclipse Stakes, the King George and Queen Elizabeth, and Arc de Triomphe races. Gladness won the Sunninghill stakes and Ascot Champion Stakes. McShain at The White House 1951
John and Mary in Killarney
John McShain was born on December 21 1898 on Appletree Street in Philadelphia. His parents (John and Catherine) had both emigrated from Ireland. John Sr. had become involved in the construction business when he arrived in Philadelphia in the early 1880s. By the late 1890s, he was moderately well-established as a builder of Catholic churches, schools, rectories, and convents. John Jr. attended various Catholic schools and graduated in 1918. He then spent a year at Georgetown University. When his father died during his sophomore year he withdrew from college and took over his father’s building business. Most of John McShain’s early projects were church-related as he specialized in building Catholic Parochial schools, convents, and rectories. On May 28 1927 John McShain married Mary Horstmann, daughter of Ignatius Horstmann, a Philadelphia clothing manufacturer and Union League Republican. In the years after his marriage, John McShain established himself as one of Philadelphia’s most important builders. In the early 1930s, he began bidding on Washington DC jobs.
John McShain and Mary Horstmann 1927
This is the life story of the great John McShain, a multimillionaire philanthropist who bestowed Killarney with ‘the greatest gift any town could receive’. Yet sadly no statue or street bears his name.
