K.P. and Victoria Williamson: Williamson Builders, Inc.

Karlton (K.P.) Williamson is a descendant of a proud family from Charleston, South Carolina. His grandfather was Compton Williamson and he is described as a freeman, lighthouse keeper, extensive land owner and respected citizen in that Southern community, who “walked the streets like he owned the town.”

K.P.’s father, Arthur David (A.D.) Williamson, was a tradesman and came to Columbus in the very early part of the twentieth century, part of a migration of tradesmen involved in the completion of Shiloh Baptist and Centenary Methodist Churches. After the churches were completed, A.D. established his own contracting business and built homes for Columbus families. Through his business he was able to apprentice numbers of young Black tradesmen, including musician Melvin Reid, electrical engineer Efflie Brooks, Sr. and his son, Karlton.

K.P. met a young, Iowa-born beauty, Victoria (Vickie), they married in 1946, after he returned from his volunteer service with the U.S. Coast, in the South Pacific. He establish his company, Williamson Builders, and they were building homes in Riverside, California, before he returned to work in Indiana and Ohio.

The young Williamsons had known Ross and Mamie Frazier through his father and Mrs. Frazier was enamoured with Vickie enough that she wanted the young couple to be the next owners of their rural home. They agreed on a price and took over the property, which included land and two barns in 1962, where they raised Karlton and his sister, Yvonne.

Williamson Builders grew during the 1970s, contracting on many Columbus area projects like the Mt. Vernon Plaza, the Ohio State Office Tower, Ohio’s Workman Compensation Building. K.P. says that he and Louis Smoot were on the front lines and in the courtrooms as Ohio’s minority contractors fought to participate in the State of Ohio business through House Bill 584, also known as the Minority Set-Aside Legislation.

Williamson Builders partnered with The Sherman R. Smoot Company and Turner Construction to complete projects at Deer Creek State Park, the Ohio State University, Friendship Village and Tuttle Mall of Dublin and The Bank One Complex in Polaris.

After building new offices on Industrial Parkway, across from Frazier Estates, at age seventy-five, K.P. left the business to Karlton. In the fall of 2008, the company has four major projects going, including the new Grange Mutual Insurance Complex in Downtown Columbus.

K.P. is proud that the younger Williamson has been past president of the Association of General Contractors, the industry group that negotiates with trade union organizations. The business will transition to the next generation, as another member of this proud family will be groomed for leadership.