Taylor built his first house at the age of 17

Jim Taylor has a long history in the construction business.

His business, Jim Taylor Construction, has been around since 1976 but he began when he was still a teenager.

“I built my first house when I was 17,” he said. “I built it by myself and hired three 14-year-olds to work for me.”

After school, he went to college and became a teacher, but continued to do construction work. He expanded his company to do everything, from building additions on houses to plumbing to siding. He also took on big projects like the replacing the roof on St. Joseph High School, the Masonic building and the courthouse in Chesapeake, renovating four Hampton Inns and many other projects around the Tri-State and the region.

His crew includes three master plumbers and four master carpenters.

“I’ve built 119 houses over the past 40 years,” Taylor said. “Several of them were million-dollar houses. The harder it is to build, the better it is. We like difficult. I have some of the smartest architects in the world working for me.”

He recently renamed his Ashland, Ky.-based company Jim Taylor Construction to add “and Son” with the addition of his son, Mike Wilson, to the business.

“He started out when he was 14 years old, helping me,” Taylor said. “It isn’t being handed to him.”

Not that he plans to retire any time soon.

“I plan on doing this until I die,” Taylor said.

He said that his main interest in life is saving souls.

Taylor said that God has always been in his life, but recently has the Word has taken a deeper meaning for him.

“That is from my heart,” he said, adding he is a member of the Freewill Baptist Church on Route 60 outside of Ashland, Kentucky. “Saving souls had just gotten into me lately and it really has changed me. Last Saturday, they came to me and asked for a miracle, she asked me to pray for her to live one more day. She has cancer and needed help in her battle.”

“And we have people that are the exact opposite — they say they have a demon in them and they are going to hell. But we have people who can help them.”