L.S. Lee, Inc. began in upstate New York as L.S. Lee and Son, owned by Louis Stockton Lee and her son, Cebern Lee. Cebern Lee’s grandfather originally started manufacturing concrete pipe in Montour Falls, NY. When Cebern’s grandfather died in 1920, he and his mother decided to move their pipe operation to Oaks Corners, NY to begin manufacturing New York State accepted concrete products. At the time, New York required special approved aggregates and Oaks Corners provided a sand pit and limestone quarry that were both state approved.
One of the concrete products the company manufactured was a triangular concrete post that was used as a guide post along shoulders of the road. The Department of Public Works then decided to put a hole in the concrete post, insert and eyebolt and pass a cable through the eye. That was the first guide railing ever used in the State of New York! Mr. Lee felt that L.S. Lee & Son could install them as well as manufacture them, and that was his initial start in the guide railing business.
Following the end of World War II, Cebern Lee was invited to be a judge at a sailing Olympics. Another judge at the event was George Elder, a sailboat manufacturer from New Jersey. Lee and Elder became good friends and decided to form a company to build wooden sailboats in Oaks Corners.
By combing the last two names, they started making sailboats under the name of Elderlee, Inc. – one of their most famous being the “Elderlee Star.” In addition, they made baseball bats, rolling pins, oars, paddles, and other kinds of wooden products. They were not in the wooden sailboat business too many years, when it began to decline due to the evolution of the fiberglass hull. Elderlee exited the wood products marketplace focused on steel manufacturing and specialty contracting.
The massive highway building programs of the late 50’s, 60’s and early 70’s provided L.S. Lee & Son the opportunity to subcontract their guardrail installation services to H.J. Williams Company, Inc., a heavy and highway contractor from York, PA. This long term relationship was the catalyst for the 1973 purchase of both L.S. Lee & Son and Elderlee, Inc. by the owner of H.J. Williams, Robert E. Hirschman from the Estate of Cebern Lee.
With the decline of the heavy highway construction market in the 70’s, H.J. Williams Company, Inc. was sold in 1984, and a dedicated focus towards specialty contracting and manufacturing emerged.
Today, L.S. Lee, Inc. and Elderlee, Inc. operate as divisions of REH Holdings, Inc. headquartered in York, PA, and specialize in the manufacturing and installation of highway safety products.
L.S. Lee, Inc. is adept at the installation of highway guiderails, impact attenuators, traffic signs, and overhead sign structures. When combined with the resources of Elderlee, Inc., L.S. Lee will perform work from New York to South Carolina.
L.S. Lee currently has facilities in York, PA, Hampstead, MD, and Richmond, VA. From these locations and additional strategically located material yards, the divisions can service customers in Pennsylvania, Maryland, District of Columbia, Delaware, and Virginia.
L.S. Lee’s customers include the State Departments of Transportation, toll road operators, private road maintenance owners, various towns and municipalities, Public Private Partnerships (P3’s), and numerous general contractors and commercial customers.
The company is a proud contributor to the industries and active leaders in the American Traffic Safety Services Association and the National and State highway transportation associations.
One of REH Holdings's initiatives is to recruit and retain a high performance workforce. Our total compensation package for most full-time jobs includes excellent health and retirement benefits, paid holidays, vacation, and personal time.