Elder-Jones, Inc. was founded in September 1971 by James N. Elder and his long time friend and employee, Raymond W. Jones. Jim Elder had been in the oil business, owning a string of gas stations. Ray ran the construction and development side, building and remodeling gas stations at various locations in Minnesota. The oil business was sold in 1971, at which time Elder-Jones was founded. Ray ran the day-to-day operations and Jim provided start-up capital and business advice. During the early years their office was in Ray's basement.

John Elder joined Elder-Jones as a Project Manager in May 1973. John and Ray worked back to back in Ray's basement with one phone that they passed back and forth. It was only a minor inconvenience because there weren't many calls coming in at that point.

John and Ray started out contracting for light commercial and occasional residential work in the Twin Cities area. To drum up some business, they first built three "spec" homes. After several months of construction, the projects were completed and sold for a net loss of $65. Not a great beginning, but Elder-Jones was on the map!

Elder-Jones almost immediately transitioned from residential to commercial projects. With their oil business background, Ray and John developed work with oil companies building new stations, remodeling existing and converting locations from full service (remember when?) to self-service stations.

In 1974 Elder-Jones moved to their first office on 94th Street in Bloomington. It was there that John Hoagland came aboard as a Project Manager and Pat Zawadski as the first Secretary.

In 1975 John Elder acquired his dad's fifty percent interest in Elder-Jones. By that time, Elder-Jones was working exclusively in commercial construction for retail clients in shopping malls, restaurants and gas stations.

In 2000 two long term Elder-Jones employees, Brian Perkkio and Mark Utne were named Vice Presidents and principals of the company.

In 2008 Project Manager Justin Elder and Vice President of Finance Dennis Hill were both named principals of the company.

Today, Elder-Jones is headquartered in Bloomington, MN and provides nationwide general contracting services to all 50 states, Puerto Rico and Canada. The Bloomington office also serves as headquarters to associated companies: Elder-Jones Building Permit Service, Inc and Elder-Jones of Canada, Ltd. Job control and special programs, such as a corporate-wide Safety Program and a Junior Superintendent Training Program are also run from this office. This corporate structure has allowed Elder-Jones to run cost-competitive projects nationwide for over thirty-six years.