Named in 1925 for Downey pioneers Joseph Henry Stewart (1825-1890) and Algernon Sidney “A.S.” Gray (1845-1930). Joseph Stewart, born in Maine, rode out to California in 1859. He and his wife Mary lived in Gilroy for a spell, then migrated south in 1869 and bought 33 acres of land where the western end of this street now lies. A blacksmith by trade, Stewart became locally famous for his figs, apples, and grapes. As for A.S. Gray, he was a Missourian who came to CA in 1864. After a few years in Sonoma County, he moved to Los Angeles in 1871 and would soon live at the other end of present-day Stewart and Gray Road. He was elected Downey’s justice of the peace in 1919 and was still serving when this street took his name. (His son, grandson, and great grandson also became judges.) Stewart and Gray surely knew each other: both were members of Downey’s first Odd Fellows Lodge.
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