Adapted from the 1987 House Tour Guide (page 470)

The house at #17 Hicks Street started life as a barn built about 1870. Its title chain was hard to trace because of the realty-accumulating activities of Frederick M. Eastman, Benjamin D. Hicks and Benjamin F. Speedling in this area. All of these men at one time or another owned large parcels of land which included the site of the present #17 Hicks Street. A map (Queens County File #568, filed June 27, 1872, shows this site as a proposed development of 25 x 100' lots extending west of Hicks Street and bounded by Mott Avenue, West Shore Road and Old Northern Boulevard. However, buildings were standing on some of the lots.

During the period 1897 to 1906, Benjamin F. Speedling collected parcels of land as follows:

1897: From Benjamin D. Hicks (Queens County Liber 1163 of Deeds, Pg. 127)

1899: From Frederick M. Eastman (Nassau County Liber 23 of Deeds, pg. 196)

1902: From Benjamin D. Hicks (Nassau County Liber 23 of Deeds, pg. 196)

1906: From Patrick Coughlin (Nassau County Liber 121 of Deeds, pg. 206)

We do not know which of these parcels included the barn, which is the subject of this article. In 1907, Benjamin F. Speedling sold the entire parcel to Alice Hicks submerging the identity of the building even more completely (Nassau County Liber 175 of Deeds, pg. 475). In 1914 Frederick C. Hicks sold the parcel to Charles C. Woodin (Nassau County Liber 267 of Deeds, pg. 149).

In 1917 Charles C. Woodin conveyed part of the holding to Annie W. Woodin (Nassau County Liber 476 of Deeds, pg. 74), and part to Ethel W. Skidmore, both of whom built houses on this site facing Woodin Street (later Mott Avenue) west of Short Street (later Hicks Street). In 1928 Ethel W. Skidmore sold her parcel to Joseph Marino (Nassau County Liber 1369 of Deeds, pg. 412) and, in the same year, as the executrix of Annie W. Woodin, also sold the balance of the parcel to Joseph Marino (Nassau County Liber 1369 of Deeds, pg. 18). In 1944 Joseph Marino sold part of the parcel to Carl Carlson (Nassau County Liber 2736 of Deeds, pg. 463) and, in 1947, Nora Marino sold the balance, including the subject building, to Joseph Yakkey (Nassau County Liber 2786 of Deeds, pg. 463). Almost immediately (1947) Joseph Yakkey conveyed the premises to Victoria Mary Yakkey (Nassau County Liber 3280 of Deeds, pg. 242). In the following year (1948) the State of New York acquired part of the property (Nassau County Liber 3514 of Deeds, pg. 380) for the relocation of Route 25-A and the construction of the North Hempstead Overpass. This involved the relocation of this part of Mott Avenue to the south and the demolition of the Woodin and Skidmore houses already mentioned. In 1966 Aida Yakkey conveyed the property, including the #17 Hicks Street house, to Joseph A. Sasso (Nassau County Liber 7530 of Deeds, pg. 339) and in 1980 James A. Sasso sold the premises to David Beegel (Nassau County Liber 9255 of Deeds, pg. 496). In 1984 David and Helen Beegel sold the property to the Roslyn Preservation Corporation (Nassau County Liber 9553 of Deeds, pg. 396) and, in the following year, (May 1st, 1985), the Roslyn Preservation Corporation sold the property to William J. Johnston and Michael Byrne, Jr., under the provisions of an architectural restoration and preservation covenant.