THE VAN DELDEN COMPANY FOUNDING HISTORY

Franz Xavier Van Delden was born in Oberhausen, Germany on August 31, 1886. The son of a builder, at an early age he soon learned the building trades of carpentry, painting and bricklaying. After a stint in the military as an officer in the cavalry of Kaiser Wilhelms’ Army, he immigrated to the United States by the way of New York in 1913 at the age of 27. For the next 13 years he traveled this country on horseback and worked odd jobs, mostly bricklaying and painting. It was in 1927 in San Antonio that he met Melba Keller, daughter of immigrant parents from Austria and Switzerland. He soon married Melba and settled down to make his permanent home in the country on the outskirts of San Antonio. Soon thereafter he founded the Van Delden Company in 1932, and by the time of his passing in 1955 he had fathered five children: Frank, Ted, Gary, Sonja and Barron, in that order.

Today the Van Delden Company is a privately held corporation and has been a service contracting firm working throughout Texas and the United States. The Company is presently managed by Ted Van Delden, along with his wife Cathy and their six children: Ted II, Hans, Eric, Kurt, Heidi and Peter. As the firm has grown steadily over the past seven decades the family has remained committed to maintaining the company’s reputation for quality workmanship and professional management.

Our work over the many years has included a varied range of residential, commercial and industrial projects. The projects of the various divisions can be reviewed by navigating through our website. We trust that the images you see will speak for themselves.