Historic Pelham Homes and Photos
Benedict Place
Benedict Place is part of the "Pelhamwood Neighborhood," developed by Clifford B. Harmon in the early 1900’s. The concept for the neighborhood derives from the aesthetic movement of the late 19th/early 20th century which sought to create park-like settings where homes gently inserted while preserving the natural setting of the area, including dense woodlands and craggy rocks. There was a sales office at the head of the stairs at Benedict Place. A fountain and a small pool containing live goldfish was situated at the bottom of the stairs with a sign that could be read from any passing train. "if you lived in Pelham, you would be home now”
20 Benedict Place
20 Benedict Place, is a fine example of the Italian Renaissance Revival style so popular in the 1920’s. Hallmarks of the style are the stucco exterior, barrel tile roof with wide overhanging eaves and symmetrical facade with protruding center bay and rounded-arch entry each articulated by quoining. The important architectural elements of this home are all preserved, including original windows, roof and, on the interior, original faience tile floor in the family room. An early owner, Francis E. Haag and his wife, four children and servants were living here in 1925, soon after the house was built in 1921. Haag served in WWI first as captain, then became chief of the Accounts Department, Finance Division of the Aircraft Production Board, appointed March 21, 1918, was promoted to Major on August 2, 1918 and was discharged February 1, 1919. During the 1920s he was a stockbroker, until the crash of 1929. He later became President of United Feldspar and Minerals Corporation and he, no doubt, enjoyed the easy 29 minute commute to his office at 10 East 40th Street in midtown Manhattan. The Haag family lived here until at least Mr. Haag's death in 1945.
Homes on Cliff Avenue
328 Cliff Avenue
This Edwardian-era home, built in 1914, was briefly the home of the McClellan Family before being purchased by American Express President George C. Taylor (1808-1923) about the time that he promoted to the position in 1915. Taylor was born in 1808 and joined the company as a wagon driver at age 17, working his way up through every position in the company. In 1918, he oversaw the merger of four express companies, American, Adams, Wells Fargo and Southern to become the “American Railway Express Company. From 1946 to 1955, the Edwardian-era home built in 1914 was the home of Mr. & Mrs. William E. Robinson. William E. Robinson (1901-1968) Robinson was long associated with the New York Herald Tribune, serving successively as editor and executive vice president before becoming the publisher in 1953. In his earlier years with the newspaper, he was sent to France where General Dwight D. Eisenhower had imposed tight restrictions on reporting. Robinson scheduled a meeting with Eisenhower to seek more leniency. Ironically, the meeting was scheduled right at the start of a German counteroffensive that became the “Battle of the Bulge,” but Eisenhower took the meeting and Robinson was impressed with his cool head while, literally, under fire. The two became fast friends and, after the war, Robinson persuaded Ike first to author “Crusade in Europe” and then to run for president. Robinson became part of a group the press derided as “Ike’s Millionaires,” helping him to secure the Republican nomination and then winning the White House. An “Ike for President Club” was formed at 328 Cliff Avenue. Once elected as president, the group became Eisenhower’s “kitchen cabinet” as well as his golfing buddies, playing at Augusta (where Robinson was a member and sponsored Eisenhower in joining) as well as at Camp David (where Ike had a course built), Cherry Hills in Denver, Colorado, Palm Springs, California and later in Gettysburg, Pennsylvania and Newport Country Club, Rhode Island. Eisenhower often stayed with the Robinsons at 328 Cliff Avenue. Neighbors from the time, like Betty Bucher, recall Eisenhower walking his Scottish Terrier along the Cliff Avenue sidewalks with the Secret Service in tow. Robinson went on to acquire an advertising firm called, Robinson-Hannagan Associated, and later served as Chairman of the Coca-Cola Company, succeeding another member of the Ike golfing gang, Robert Woodruff. He and Eisenhower both died of heart attacks within about two months of each other in 1969. Long before Eisenhower was hosted by the Robinsons, presidential visits to this Pelham location actually began much earlier -- with George Washington. The site was the location of a home built in 1750 (destroyed in 1888) by descendants of Thomas Pell, the founder of Pelham and first “Lord of Pelham Manor.” The Pells at that time owned all of the present Town of Pelham. They had their choice of any location to build homes, yet chose this spot along what was then the Boston-Post Road (now Colonial Avenue) on one of the highest points in the area with expansive views at that time across Pelham to the Long Island Sound and all the way to Manhattan. (The original chimney stone with the date 1750 is installed in a memorial to Colonel Pell located next to the entrance of Pelham Memorial High School.) That home passed to Colonel Philip Pell III (1753-1811), who served as Deputy Judge Advocate General under General George Washington during the American War for Independence. Pell rode triumphantly with Washington into New York City the day the British evacuated the city at the end of the war. After the war, George Washington slept at that home on several occasions. Thirty-three presidents later, Dwight Eisenhower would return to the same spot in Pelham to sleep in the home that now occupies the site. The home served as the United Nations Embassy for Barbados in the 1980s until 1995 when it was purchased by Nicole Browning, an executive with MTV. Sources: "William E. Robinson Dies at 68," The New York Times, Sunday, June 8, 1869; Sowell, David, “All the President’s Men,” Links Magazine, September/October 2004; Beschloss, Michael, “The Gang That Always Liked Ike,” New York Times, November 15, 2014; Daily Argus, 1952; “Geo. C. Taylor Dies of Heart Attack,” The New York Times, December 19, 1923; Barr, Lockwood, A brief, but most complete & true Account of the Settlement of the Ancient Town of Pelham, Westchester County, State of New York Known one Time well & favourably as the Lordshipp & Mannour of Pelham, Dietz Press, 1946, pp. 119, 142-144
"328 Cliff Ave, formerly McClellan - site of Philip Pell house" Wm. Montgomery, glass slide photograph, 11/2/24 (Digitized 2016; re-touched 2021)
"328 Cliff Ave, The Taylor House - formerly McClellan - site of Old Pell House" Wm. Montgomery, glass slide photograph, 10/25/24 (Digitized 2016; re-touched 2021)
Homes on Corlies Avenue
203 Corlies Avenue
203 Corlies Avenue This Victorian home was built in 1895; it is one of 25 houses in Pelham Heights built before 1900 and retains such original details as side protruding bays, slate roof and Palladian window in the front facade. It was owned and occupied by the Gulbenkian Family for more than a century. Hartoutiune Gulbenkian, one of several generations of successful Persion rug dealers, was the nephew of the Calouste Sarkis Gulbenkian (1869-1955), the immensely wealthy financier and oil tycoon, who founded the Iraq Petroleum Company and whose art collection became the Museo Calouste Gulbenkian in Lisbon. Hartoutiune lived at 203 Corlies with his wife, Noemie, son, Edward, and three daughters, Virginia, Araxia and Sonia. Sonia occupied the house until her death in 1994. Peter & Claire Doyle purchased the home in 2006.
Homes on the Esplanade
"644 Esplanade," Wm. Montgomery, glass slide photograph, 2/19/28 (Digitized 2016)
"Esplanade 644, Mrs. E.C. King's House," Wm. Montgomery, glass slide photograph, 5/13/23 (Digitized 2016; re-touched 2021)
"667 Esplanade, L.H. Austen," Wm. Montgomery, glass slide photograph, 12/27/26 (Digitized 2016; re-touched 2021)
"667 Esplanade," Wm. Montgomery, glass slide photograph, 2/18/28 (Digitized 2016)
"684 Esplanade, Residence of Mr. & Mrs. Frank Brooks" Wm. Montgomery, glass slide photograph, 2/23/28 (Digitized 2016)
"676 Esplanade," Wm. Montgomery, glass slide photograph, 2/18/28 (Digitized 2016)
"Esplanade, Looking Toward Post Road South" Wm. Montgomery, glass slide photograph, 2/18/28 (Digitized 2016)
"Esplanade, 706, Residence of William Brash (site of park)," Wm. Montgomery, glass slide photograph, 4/29/25 (Digitized 2016)
1040 Esplanade
Built in 1905 on land originally owned by the Black Family, this Classical Revival home has a symmetrical plan, emphasized by its hip roof and equally-spaced chimneys and prominent Palladian window. Front and back centered porticos with Tuscan columns are carried through to the inside foyer where a dramatic, arched colonnade frames a grand staircase. Burwell and Helena (nee Porteous) Crosthwaite made this their home from the late 1920s until 1964, hosting such community events as Christ Church bridge parties, a 1941 war relief effort to collect clothing for Great Britain and, after America entered the war, a drive to collect books for U.S. soldiers. Mr. Burwell was an insurance broker and a member of the Yale Club, the American Yacht Club and the Turf & Field Club of Long Island. (His father owned the Metropolitan Dredging Company, which dug the 40-foot "Ambrose Channel" into New York Harbor.) Mrs. Burwell was a graduate of Smith College and held benefits for the school at the house. Previously, it was for a short time the home of Edith Sessions Tupper, a trailblazing journalist, author, playwright and script writer. A graduate of Vassar College, she was a correspondent for the New York Times and Chicago Tribune, adventuring to report on the burgeoning western part of the United States. Her 1878 passport application at age 22 described her as 5 feet, 4 inches tall, with blue eyes, dark brown hair and a round full face, consistent with later drawings of her (see below). Her published books include By Whose Hand? (1889), Stuff of Dreams (1908), The Man from Headquarters (1905), Hearts Triumphant (1906) and The House of the Tolling Bell (which she later scripted to become a film, released in 1920). She also wrote the scripts for the plays, Madame Betty (1901), Father John (1902), Smart Sinners (1903), The Captain's Heart (1904) and Nine Spades (1905) and in 1917, perhaps at 1040 Esplanade, authored the silent film scripts for The Black Door, Birds of Prey, A Long Lane, Kidnapped, The White Trail and Taking Chances.
"Esplanade, 1084, Formerly residence of Dr. Leary," Wm. Montgomery, glass slide photograph, 11/25/23 (Digitized 2016)
Homes on First Avenue
"First Ave, 463 Diack House, Old Stone House, Snyder's House, Formerly Parish House of Church of the Redeemer," Wm. Montgomery, glass slide photograph, 4/7/23 (Digitized 2016)
Homes on Monterey Avenue
530 Monterey Avenue
Built in 1920, this handsome brick Georgian Revival style home was first the home of Frederick Bacon, a Canadian-born engineer and his wife Ada, a daughter of New York City educator Evander Childs for whom Evander Childs High School on Gun Hill Road in the Bronx was named. The house is perhaps most closely associated with Chauncey & Daphne Williams who lived here beginning as early as 1934 and who were leaders in the Pelham community for many decades. Mr. Williams served as Pelham Manor Village Trustee and then Mayor (1951-53), was an avid golfer and member and president of the Pelham Country Club and was Vice President of the Pelham Men’s Club. He was a lieutenant and aviator in the United States Navy during WWI where he was stationed in France and achieved the rank of colonel. After the war, he became a journalist and went on to become an Executive Vice President and Vice President of the Board of Directors at the publishing firm F.W. Dodge Corp. (later part of McGraw Hill). Mrs. Williams was head of the local Red Cross during WWII and was active in the Manor Club, serving as Program Chair, Music Section Chair (regularly composing, singing and playing the piano) and President of the club (1946-1948). After her husband’s death in 1964, Mrs. Williams continued to live at the home into the 1980s. Mr. Williams' father, also called Chauncey Williams, was an owner and partner in the publishing firm of Way & Williams, which published L. Frank Baum's first children's book "Mother Goose in Prose." The firm closed in 1898. In 1900, Baum wrote "The Wonderful Wizard of Oz," the first in the series of books, published by a different firm. Chauncey L. Williams the father, was good friends with Frank Lloyd Wright and had a home designed by Frank Lloyd Wright in River Forest, Illinois, which still stands today.
Homes on Park Lane
1357 Park Lane
Designed by architect Phillip Resnick in 1926, 1357 Park Lane is one of Pelham’s most outstanding examples of Tudor Revival architecture. The home is built of locally-quarried granite with a prominent stucco and half-timbered gable. Original steel casement and leaded and stained glass windows are all preserved, along with a rusticated slate roof. In addition to being architecturally significant, the home is also of historic importance. It was for many decades the home of Christopher & Helen Chenery and their children Hollis, Margaret and Helen (who was better known by her nickname, “Penny”). The Chenery Family is well-known for their ownership of Meadow Stable, which produced such thoroughbred race horses as Riva Ridge, First Landing and Secretariat. After Mr. Chenery’s death in January, 1973, Penny Chenery Tweedy assumed management of Meadow Stable and, against financial challenges, continued to train and race Secretariat to become the triple-crown winner that year. She made a cameo appearance in the 2010 film “Secretariat.” Prior to her death last September, she recalled in a telephone conversation her time living in the home. “I had a wonderful childhood growing up in Pelham,” she said, remembering how her father installed an elevator that still operates in the home. The house was sold in 1973 to the O’Reilly Family. Mrs. O’Reilly was a sister of the author and political commentator, William F. Buckley.
1424 Park Lane
America's architecture has been influenced, like most of our culture, by Great Britain. After a strong influence from France during the reign of Napoleon III in the late 1800s, by the turn of the century England had resumed its strong influence on and connections to America with many of the nouveau riche of the United States marrying into English nobility to save their great estates. As a result, by the 1920s, American Architecture had fully embraced and revived England’s “Tudor Style.” Fueled by the wealth made in the stock market, the style was dubbed “Stockbroker Tudor. Pelham lays claim to many homes in this Tudor style, but a standout is the home of Katy and Nick Loria at 1424 Park Lane. Built in 1928, the Loria’s home was designed in this style as demonstrated by its asymmetrical design, stucco and half-timbered facade, slate roof and prominent chimney. It boasts an enviable level property and impressive gardens on almost an acre of land. The home has an interesting history. It was long the home of Judge Vincent L. Broderick who was a senior judge of the Federal District Court for the Southern District of New York and served as New York City Police Commissioner appointed by Mayor Robert F. Wagner in May 1965. Judge Broderick led the police force through the blackout that blanketed the Northeast, through the biggest transit strike in the city’s history and the first visit by a Pope, Paul VI. His family, wife Sally and six children lived here until 2002.
Homes on Witherbee Avenue
"55 Witherbee, Monterey Ave. & Witherbee Ave." R. Montgomery, glass slide photograph, 9/5/25 (Digitized 2016; re-touched 2021)