Monterey Avenue Homes

530 Monterey

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.