Family legend has it that John J. Fallon (1873-1950) first came to Montauk in the 1920s with his construction crew to work on the Montauk Manor. In 1922 his daughter Margaret Fallon (1904-1996) married Michael L. Cahill (1896-1967). They loved the water and in the mid-1930s began to search for a summer home at the shore. Over time, from 1940 to 1958, they purchased eight lots in Hither Hills from the Mirror Holding Company, and in 1941, they bought a $900 house kit to build a home at 95 Bryan Road.
Michael Cahill was on active duty with the Navy during World War II from June 1943 through March 1945. During the summer of 1943, Margaret Cahill and their three daughters, Peggy, Eleanor, and Carol, lived alone in Montauk, going through blackouts and rationing without a telephone but with “polite young servicemen” who were stationed in Montauk assisting them. In the early 1940s and then in the 1950s, Lynn’s Aunt Carol worked in Montauk at the Anzac House (later Bea’s Surf & Sand) as a chambermaid. She liked riding horses at Deep Hollow Ranch, square dancing at the Hither Hills campground, golfing at the Montauk Downs, and swimming and fishing in Montauk.
After the war, Michael Cahill returned to work as a pharmacist for the medical department of Consolidated Edison. He died in 1967.
The Montauk house was never winterized, but Margaret Cahill and her family continued to split their time between their homes in Montauk and Flushing. All three daughters were models at one time, including at Montauk fashion shows at the Montauk Surf Club. Margaret liked to write, paint, craft, and follow history; she was also involved in many Montauk organizations, including the Montauk Historical Society and the Montauk Fire Department. After she died in 1996, many of her collections were passed on to her granddaughter Lynn Stayton Eurell.
Lynn’s mother, Eleanor, married Leon (Bud) Stayton after they met at Trail’s End Restaurant in Montauk in the summer of 1949 while he was stationed at Camp Hero. They too spent summers in Montauk, divorcing in 1970. Eleanor moved to Montauk year-round in 1978, working part-time at the Montauk Lighthouse from 1984 to 1994 but eventually selling the Montauk home.
Lynn, the donor of the collection, married a Montauk local, Michael Eurell, who still has relatives living in Montauk. “Our extended family loved spending time in Montauk and were frequently there,” Lynn wrote on her website and blog about Montauk history, called Montauk Unspoiled, for which she researches and writes about Montauk history. “My brothers and I had the best times of our lives growing up every summer.”
