Our Company was formed in 1930 by Robert B. Payne, who, with a horse and buggy, started a business delivering wood and ice to local homes.

In the late 1930s, Mr. Payne expanded his company by moving into a new home heating product – coal. He had to buy his first boxcar of coal on credit. In the early 1940s, the Company again expanded, moving into what was then the newest home heating product – fuel oil. In the late 1950s and early 1960s, the Company, then run by R. Cameron Thompson, again broadened its product line, but this time it was a move away from home heating products. This time it was a newly invented product designed to cool the home, not heat it. That invention, of course, was air conditioning. One of the company’s first air conditioning installations was in the Virginia Electric and Power Company building on Water Street. We continue to service that building today.

Since 1930, Robert B. Payne, Inc. ownership still remains in the original family. R. Cameron Thompson, III, and Robert B. P. Thompson continue the same commitment to quality with which their grandfather started, allowing us to become Fredericksburg’s Premier Heating & Air Conditioning Company.

Message from Robert B. Payne