[1][2] He attended the local public schools and received preliminary architectural training in the office of Henry Austin.

In 1877 and 1878 he traveled in Europe, and when he returned to the United States he opened his own office as an architect in New Haven.

[5] From 1878 to 1894 he was architect to the Board of Education of New Haven, and from 1903 to 1913 was secretary of the commission charged with the construction of the Connecticut State Library and Supreme Court Building in Hartford, for which Donn Barber of New York City and Edward T. Hapgood of Hartford were chosen architects.

[6][7] Gray & Lawrence were responsible for the Little Theatre of New Haven, built in 1924 and listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1984.

Robinson was also affiliated with the Architectural League of New York and the Connecticut Society of Civil Engineers.