The Samuel Gray Building
15 Railroad Avenue, Kingston, New York
15 Railroad Avenue — the Samuel Gray Building — is a four-story late-Victorian brick building in Midtown Kingston, built in 1898 alongside the railroad that gives the street its name.
Its original cornice, carved brackets, and bluestone window caps still stand, along with the signature tablet that reads 1898 Gray.
From railroad land to a restored landmark.
More than a century of use, drawn from the Friends of Historic Kingston record of the building.
Built on railroad land
Samuel M. Gray, a grain and grocery merchant from Saugerties, bought this corner from the estate of Thomas Cornell — the Kingston railroad pioneer behind the Ulster & Delaware line — and raised the brick building that still bears his name. The West Shore Railroad had reached Midtown just over a decade earlier, and Railroad Avenue was fast becoming the city's commercial workbench.
The grocery years
By the early 1900s the building housed the wholesale grocers Matthews & Harrison — importers and roasters of teas and coffees, and proprietors of the “Colonial Brand” of food products. The firm became F.B. Matthews & Co., roasting and packing its own coffee for the trade.
F.B. Matthews & Co.
In 1927 the Matthews company bought the building outright and stayed through 1956 — nearly half a century as a fixture of Kingston's food trade.
Royal Tire Service
In 1956 the building changed hands and began a new chapter as home to Royal Tire Service, which operated here for more than four decades, into the early 2000s.
Restored
A careful restoration brought the building back to life, earning a 2006 Friends of Historic Kingston Preservation Award — new systems and renewed space, with the original brick, cornice, and character intact.
A creative Midtown
The block now sits within Kingston's Midtown Arts District, where old brick warehouses have become studios, shops, and small businesses. The Samuel Gray Building stands among them, still part of the street's daily life.
Under DTB Holdings
In 2022, DTB Holdings acquired 15 Railroad Avenue. We hold it as a long-term steward: maintaining a landmark of Kingston's industrial past and keeping it working for the community around it.
Photographs of 15 Railroad Avenue.
A visual record of 15 Railroad Avenue across its working life — from the F.B. Matthews grocery years through the Royal Tire era.
Chris Staffon
Managing Partner
Chris Staffon is the Managing Partner of DTB Holdings, leading the partnership's stewardship of the Samuel Gray Building.
A Hudson Valley–based investor and operator, he is drawn to buildings with history and committed to keeping them viable for the long term.