Lanham Contractor Building Another Inauguration
Company involved in staging every inauguration since 1949
Thursday, Jan 8, 2009 | Updated 1:14 PM EDT
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Spectators watch from the Presidential reviewing stand as a float from Texas passes during the inaugural parade in front of the White House January 20, 2005, in Washington, DC. U.S. President George W. Bush was inaugurated for a second term earlier in the day.
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LANHAM, Md. -- A company from Lanham that has been at every inauguration since 1949 is hard at work on Barack Obama's.
Hargrove Inc. is the general contractor for the Presidential Inaugural Committee, working on the décor at every official ball but known best for the oohs and ahhs their floats coax from spectators on the parade route. The company is almost finished with three of the eight floats it's working on this year.
Hargrove takes the committee's plans and brings them to vibrant life. Among the floats the contractor is working on this year are the one that Miss America will ride and a large American flag which was supposed to appear at President Ronald Reagan's second inauguration. Weather canceled that appearance, but the flag has rolled in every inaugural parade since.
Earl Hargrove, 80, has directed the efforts for the past 60 years. Usually, things go smoothly, but he recalled when the mules President Harry S Truman wanted to pull his float exercised their stubbornness.
"We were supposed to make a right on 16th Street ... and go up and make the left in front of the White House," Hargrove said. "We got ready to make that turn up there, and the mules decided they didn't want to go right, they wanted to go left, and what a damn mess we had on our hands getting that thing straightened out."
He is confident there won't be problems like that this year.
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