About Us

In 1908, the Gray family established their name in Maryland. Thomas Gray traded his own mill in Ashland, Virginia for the mill and dam in Butler, Maryland, built by Kensey Johns in 1800. In 1920, Thomas Gray’s son, Oscar opened the Butler Stone Quarry which was located on the property where the old mill stands today. Oscar M. Gray expanded the operation and began selling stone throughout the state of Maryland.

Oscar decided to lease his quarry to the company Harry T. Campbell & Son, and was then offered a job and went to work for the company. In 1933, Oscar M. Gray’s son, Oscar P. Gray also went to work for the Campbell Company. In 1939, the lease expired and the Gray’s decided to reestablish their own construction business in building private roads.

Further growth and expansion followed in 1952 when Oscar M. Gray teamed up with partner Frank Roberts to establish a new company in the construction of tennis courts. This is when George Palmer was hired to manage the new enterprise.

This led them to again reshuffle the company’s structure to include the roadwork and surfacing division. This restructuring resulted in the formal addition of George Palmer into the Gray organization. At the time Gray consolidated his businesses, the road building operation employed only 15 men and was run out of Oscar Gray's house. This house now serves as Gray & Son, Inc., administrative offices and a barn that is now the production and estimating office.

In time the company greatly expanded its capacity by adding excavation work to its other areas of construction expertise and in 1966, the company saw a major change in its structure and organization. That year, the ownership of the company changed as George Palmer, his brother Calvin and his brother in law Clyde Cofiell, purchased Oscar M. Gray & Son from Oscar P. Gray. The new owners made a slight alteration to the previous name of the company when they renamed it Gray & Son, Inc. Since that time, both Calvin Palmer and Clyde Cofiell have retired leaving George Palmer the only original owner remaining.

In 1983, Gray & Son business lineage grew. This time the company enlarged the paving aspect of the business when the stockholders purchased Maryland Paving, Inc. Five years later, a plumbing company owned by Bob Webbert, George Palmer’s son-in-law, was merged into Gray & Son, Inc. This undertaking began Webbert’s association and employment with the company. In 1993, Robert Webbert became President of Gray & Son when George Palmer moved to Chairman of the Board.

Today the company employs over 300 people, and many of them have been with the company for twenty years or more. This consistency is a testament to the strength and integrity of a company that started in an old mill and traces its roots back to the turn of the century.