Bray, William F.

William F. Bray (1877-ca. 1960) became an architect in Santa Cruz, designing Piedmont Court and a Berkeley Way residence for Pedro Chisem. The location of the family residence is unknown.

From the Tucson Historic Preservation Foundation website:

William F. Bray was born on April 17, 1877 in Cornwell, England. He married Fannie E. Kate Cooper (b. March 6, 1882) in Cornwell, and then, in 1904, the couple immigrated to California on the S. S. Numidia in 1904 by way of Glasgow, Scotland and New York. The couple settled to Santa Cruz and started a family having five children between 1906 and 1915: John A. (1906) and George H. (1908) William Vernon. Jr. (1909) Ivy M. (1912) and Robert J. (1915). Bray stood five foot seven with dark brown hair, blue eyes weighing hundred seventy five pounds. Before relocating to California, Bray worked for three for the South Nigerian Exploration Company of London, England.

William and Fannie naturalized in 1910. Although Bray listed himself as a carpenter in the 1910 federal census, within two years, he was a registered architect, designing significant buildings, including “Piedmont Court.” The grand apartment house, located in Santa Cruz, California at 260 High Street, designed in the Mission Revival style; at the time of its construction [1912] it was described as “Moorish” in design.

The Bray family moved to Tucson, Arizona, in 1914. Bray sold his home on Grande [Tucson] in 1922. He and his family moved to Burbank, California, to live at 815 N. Tujunga Ave in the San Fernando Valley. The date and location of William F. Bray’s death remains unknown."

• The Sidewalk Companion to Santa Cruz Architecture (4th ed. 2023): Chapter Four, entry (68) [Piedmont Court], page 116; Chapter Six, entry (22), page 192 [Chisem residence]