Ray Black & Son, Inc.

02/10/2026

We are so very fortunate to have the preservation expertise of Ray Black and Son in our community! We could not do this without them!

11/05/2025

This incredible group, representing part of our larger team, embodies the spirit and dedication that has defined our company for 100 years. We're proud of our history and excited for the future!

09/09/2025

A century of service, and what a way to celebrate! We are so grateful to be featured in the latest issue of Paducah Life Magazine. This honor is a testament to the hard work of our team and the incredible support we've received from the Paducah community.

A special thank you to our many friends and partners who celebrated with us by placing ads in the magazine. Your kindness and support are a huge part of what makes our 100th anniversary so special. Thank you for celebrating with us!

There are FEW companies who reach the centennial mark and even FEWER who do so under the leadership of four generations of family members. Read the remarkable story of how Ray Black & Son has achieved this landmark anniversary in the current edition of PADUCAH LIFE Magazine!

08/15/2025

08/12/2025

On this day, August 12, 1925, a business was born from a simple promise.

07/03/2025

The Ray Black & Son crew after a successful 500 cubic yard nighttime pour for a new linear accelerator vault.

04/03/2025

There was a story Ray Black told about what led him to become a contractor. In 1916 Ray Black married Jesse Elvada (Vay) Gholson and they lived on and farmed a piece of ground given to them by her father Ferd Gholson near Milan, where she was born, not far from Hamburg where he had been born. Their first child, Ruth Anna, arrived in time for the winter of 1917. He said wind would blow snow through the cracks in the walls, so much that it would be piled up on the blankets by morning, and the baby’s wet diaper changed during the night, would be frozen to the floor when they arose in the morning. In the Fall of 1920, Bill was born. With two young children Ray was doing everything he could to make a living. He was farming, delivering mail, cutting hair, building barns, working all the time. He said, “Five acres of to***co is just enough to kill a man.” He would go on to say he was lucky to have been raised in a family of preachers and teachers. He was able to read and write very well and had mail ordered a framing square and taught himself to use it. With that knowledge, and his experience building several barns, in 1922 he moved his young family to town, and quickly found work as a carpenter for a contractor named Charlie White. His skill with the framing square got him noticed and that led to his first shot at leadership on a job site. His boss Charlie White came to the job where Ray was working, a house at the southwest corner of Madison and Fountain Avenue. Mr. White said, “Big boy” referring to his 6’-2” frame, “Can you frame a roof?” Ray told him yes, and then he was sent with a young helper to a different job site on 36th Street, a job manned by a different crew with its own foreman. As Ray and his helper arrived, the foreman scoffed at the notion that the two of them could frame the roof by themselves. Ray set about the task, in that day a hand saw was the tool, and the two of them spent all the first day on the ground marking and cutting every rafter for the hip roof’s framing. On the second day Ray and his young helper nailed every perfectly fitting rafter in place and the roof framing was complete. From that day on Mr. White put Ray Black in charge.

02/26/2025

Breaking ground on the next 100 years! We're excited to announce our new office, coming Fall 2025.

02/11/2025