Company History

Pre-World War II
Under the name Warner Brothers, T.L. Warner and his brother Raymond sold tobacco and onions. They operated out of property still owned today by the family in Sunderland. By 1926 they had begun to do construction trucking and a bit of construction, and in 1928 they invited in Harold Goodwin and incorporated under the name Warner Bros. and Goodwin, Inc. After Harold Goodwin died, the company was renamed to Warner Bros. Inc., in 1946.

T.L.'s son Robert entered the business.

Post-World War II and 1950s
Two more sons now came into the business: first, T.L.'s second son, Edward (returned from the war and the Battle of the Bulge) and next T.L., Jr. The 1950s saw Warner Bros. Inc., operating a gravel operation and hot mix plant on Route 116 in Sunderland and saw the company's acquisition of more gravel land off East Plumtree Road and Hubbard Hill Road (both also in Sunderland). (Both gravel operations, the footprints of which have been increased by contiguous augmentation over decades, remain to this day production facilities.)

1960s
The interstate boom swelled the company's construction business, and the family business added a quarry in Deerfield and its second hot mix plant.

1970s to 1990s
The company added a third hot mix plant and acquired more gravel land*; and a third generation of Warners entered the business.

2000s
The company acquired yet more gravel land*, and in 2006 Warner Bros. Inc., again reinvented itself: It sold its construction, quarry, and hot mix businesses to its former tenant and Sunderland powerhouse, All States Asphalt, Inc., and changed its name from Warner Bros. Inc., to Delta Sand and Gravel, Inc., to accurately describe its current primary business, sand and gravel; and in 2007 a member of the fourth generation of Warners commenced work at the retained business.

Nine decades and counting: striving to remain true to a small-town, family-business ideal.

Geologic History

Long before there was any Delta Sand and Gravel, Inc., and long before any European tread the Connecticut River valley, the last glacial ice sheet (so far!), the Laurentide Ice Sheet, overcovered Sunderland and, of course, much, much more. That was tens of thousands of years ago.

Fifteen thousand years ago, after a blink of geologic time, the glacier had begun to melt and its meltwaters had filled a vast lake known now as Lake Hitchcock, which stretched from Connecticut through Massachusetts into Vermont and New Hampshire. As the ice melted and the water ran into Lake Hitchcock, many deltas were formed. And one of the better examples appeared in what became known much, much later as Sunderland. Then three thousand years after Lake Hitchcock formed, the lake drained and the Sunderland delta lay exposed.

Ten thousand years later Europeans appeared in the Americas, and after awhile, and after a previous and failed settlement effort (in 1673), one hardy group emigrated north from Hadley and founded Sunderland, under a General Court land grant dated February 17, 1713. Among them was Eleazer Warner, a direct ancestor of the Warners who founded Warner Bros. Inc.