Brown Strauss was founded in 1905 in Kansas City by Harry Strauss and two brothers, Morton and Isador Brown. After the company was acquired by a multinational conglomerate, Brown Strauss embarked on a westward expansion starting in the 1970s to the Denver, Phoenix, and Salt Lake City regions and also moved its headquarters to Denver in the early 1980s. Brown Strauss became a partially employee-owned company in 1996 when its ownership group at the time established an Employee Stock Ownership Plan (ESOP).In 2006, the remainder of the ownership was sold to the ESOP, making Brown Strauss 100% employee-owned. Following its spin off in 2015, Brown Strauss maintained its ESOP structure and today remains 100% employee-owned.