The earliest business known at this location was a supplier of Hayward Hand Grenades, which were early fire extinguishers made in New York by S.F. Hayward Company. An example can be viewed in the National Museum of American History in Washington, D.C.

After that, from the 1860s to 1896, a brick grist and grain mill called the Havre de Grace Milling Company stood here with its tall chimney visible from some distance away. The 1887 Maryland Business Directory listed John L. Cook (1851-1906) as proprietor of the Mill that was a manufacturer of “high grade roller flour” and supplied grain to James Cameron at the Livery Stables at 601 Franklin Street. Samuel Reasin Jones (1870-1916) began working in the Mill in 1890 and after five years he and his brother, Armon F. Jones (1877-1931) became the owners. They renamed the Mill as the Edgewater Roller Mills. They made flour, feed, and grist mill products and when The Graw Racetrack opened in 1912 on the edge of town the Mill was one of the main suppliers of grain for the 600-700 horses each season until 1924.

An ownership dispute arose in 1924 between the two Jones brothers’ wives, Samuel’s widow Laura and Armon’s wife Mabel, and the Circuit Court ordered the property sold by a trustee. The new owner was the Havre de Grace Banking and Trust Company (originally founded in 1883). The company demolished the old grist mill and built a brand new bank over the old foundation in 1924. That served the community until it was consolidated with First National Bank & Trust of Havre de Grace in 1956.

Since the First National Bank & Trust Company had moved to 233 St. John Street in 1956, they sold this building in 1959 to the real estate partnership of Louis H. Miller and Joseph D. Silverstein. Louis Miller was Vice President of the Columbian Building Association of Harford County and Joseph Silverstein had begun Joseph’s Department Store. In 1962, they sold it to Ruth S. Cobourn (1911-1985), the wife of Judge G. Howlett Cobourn, with whom she was living at 227 South Union Avenue at that time. She established Ruth’s School of Beauty in the building with Sally Ganson Morris, who specialized in “pin curls.”

Ruth Cobourn was also the mother of Fritz Sterbak to whom she sold this building in 1978. He moved his “Splendor and Brass Limited” brass bed business there—an article on October 16, 2005, in The Baltimore Sun reports that Fritz’s interest in brass beds was inspired by “. . . seeing Barbara Streisand lying on a brass bed singing, and about the same time Bob Dylan was singing ‘Lay across my big brass bed’ from his hit song Lay Lady Lay.” He added “I just knew because of their popularity the demand for brass beds was going to skyrocket.” While Fritz focused on the brass beds, his mother operated “Rosie O’Grady’s,” an antique store in 1983. They also carried many reproductions, vintage furs, and gift items. There also were two apartments above the store (that are now the Banquet Room of MacGregor’s Restaurant).

In 1986, Bert Hawkins, Bob Wood, and Kathy and Cecil Hill got together as “The Bank Restaurant,” bought the building from Sterbak, and renovated it as a restaurant. They ran the restaurant for one year, after which Daniel W. Lee, a local, bought the business and the building in 1987. Together with his wife, Cindy, Dan renovated it with a deck overlooking the headwaters of the Bay, named it “MacGregor’s” after his maternal grandfather in Scotland, and they’ve been running and growing the restaurant ever since. MacGregor’s celebrated its 30th anniversary in July 2017. The restaurant is now co-owned by Dan and Cindy’s son, Alex Lee, and Stephanie Golumbek, general manager.

County Records
Built 1930. 5695 sq ft commercial restaurant, 7124 sq ft lot.