“My grandfather, Adamo Ottavino, came over from Italy in 1906, when he was 16,” said Kate Ottavino, company treasurer and head of the conservation/preservation division. “He opened his own company in 1913 after apprenticing, where he learned to cut granite. With that skill, he was able to open his own monument business. He carved and installed them. The company then expanded into the design and construction of mausoleums.”

For many years, the company specialized in the monument market, with the Archdiocese of New York being one of its largest clients. “In the 1940s, my father, George Ottavino, graduated from architecture school,” said Ottavino. “He brought the business into the building and stone manufacturing industry. These were the next developments in the company's evolution.”