RAY ELLISON BLVD.
Probably no one ever dominated the home building of any city in America the way that Ray Ellison (1917-2005) did in San Antonio. A local boy who attended Fox Tech High School, he started out as an auto and aircraft mechanic, but soon turned his attention to building homes. Beginning with Valley Hi near Lackland and Kelly AFBs in 1955, Ray Ellison Homes and Rayco built more than 50,000 homes in more than 40 subdivisions over the next four decades. During that time, these companies built 45 to 60% of the new homes sold in San Antonio each year, preferring in his later years to limit new construction to “only” 2500 per year for the sake of consistency and predictability of both costs and profits. Along the way he founded two banks and the largest private water/sewer utility in Texas, and donated land for branch libraries and for Air Force Village. He received virtually every accolade given to builders on the state and local levels, and in 1980 he was named National Builder of the Year by Professional Builder Magazine. He sold the company to a California corporation in 1998.
