Mr. McGilvray

John Duff McGilvray (1847-1916) was born in Scotland and immigrated to the United States with his family in 1870, settling initially in Chicago. He was a stone cutter, preparing the stone for building construction. The family moved to Denver in 1876 and John founded a stone contracting company which both quarried and cut stone, and also constructed buildings from the stone. In the 1890s he moved to California, acquiring a granite company with which he established the McGilvray Stone Company, based in Madera county. In 1898 he was hired to build the stone buildings on the Stanford University campus and the family moved into Escondite Cottage, located in what is now Escondido Village. McGilvray built the Outer Quad, Memorial Church and other stone buildings at Stanford. He also built several famous buildings in San Francisco including City Hall, the St. Francis Hotel, the Palace Hotel, and Civic Auditorium.