McPhail’s continued its growth by purchasing an oil business in Santa Rosa and a heating and sheet metal business in Petaluma. During the great expansion of the late 1940’s and 1950’s, McPhail’s building supplies were in high demand and its concrete trucks traveled throughout Marin County. In 1939, McPhail’s constructed a ready-mix concrete plant to supply concrete for the new subdivisions being developed in Marin County after the completion of the Golden Gate Bridge.
Later in the decade, McPhail’s Ready-Mix provided concrete for both tunnels north of the Golden Gate Bridge. McPhail’s first large ready-mix contract was to provide concrete materials for the north end of the Golden Gate Bridge and for the gun emplacements which were built to protect the entrance to San Francisco Bay. To accomplish this goal, the company purchased two companies, Grady Building Materials and Checla Company, and began selling building materials and ready-mix concrete. In addition, the firm endeavored to balance out the seasonal fluctuations in sales and to provide year-round work for their employees. The company’s natural expansion to heating equipment and appliances occurred in the 1930’s. Coal and fuel oil were added to their product portfolio near the end of the decade as customer demand increased for these energy sources. With a power-driven saw and a Model “T” Truck, they cut and delivered wood to Marin County homes. Therefore, in 1924, Neil’s sons, John and Graham, joined him in creating McPhail Fuel Company. Teams of McPhail’s horses transported railroad and PG&E work crews as well as the fashionable visitors from San Francisco vacationing at the Hotel Rafael.Įxpanded use of the automobile caused the livery business to decline. Neil McPhail, a Canadian emigrant to the United States originally from Scotland, founded the company in 1884 by establishing a livery stable in San Rafael.
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