My History House # 9-

BY SUZIE ALVEY, VILLAGE HISTORIAN

The coal bin on the blueprints. Lisa and Terence Kenny's family could be living on Mineola Road in Garden City right now, and not on Bayberry Avenue. Where is Mineola Road? It can be seen on the 1914 map of Garden City, where Bayberry is now. Back then, Mineola Road swung down from the corner of Old Country Road and Washington Avenue and cut diagonally through the area. It was drawn in a complimentary curved sweep to the streets of Osborne, Huntington and Prescott Roads in the future Mott Section further south.

1914's Huntington Road was an extension of our current Eleventh Street. So the old Huntington Road east of Washington Avenue became Kingsbury Road and the old Prescott Road became Claydon Road. Needless to say, that area was re-configured and Mineola Road and its twin, Lawrence Road were never laid out. The name "Mineola Plaza" is probably derived from that early Mineola Road in Garden City.

Blueprints show the ice box. Village records show that 10 Bayberry was built in 1927. The first owner was Agnes Capelle (1885- 1966) who lived in Hollis, Queens. She worked with Herbert Harris in the ladies hat wholesale industry. In 1926 the industrious couple applied for a patent for adjustable hats for men and women. It seems she rented the Bayberry house out to a few families and lived with her widowed mom and her siblings, all single.

The first renters were Elizabeth Brown (1886-1977) and Edgar E. Brown (1895-1951). Edgar was in motor transportation during WWI. This was an up and coming field since horses and mules had been used before then. Military field testing had been done and trucks were the new, added mode of transportation in 1917. But even so, a great portion of troops and goods still travelled by animal.

In 1925 the Browns were living on Second Street in Mineola with her four children from a previous marriage. Edgar and her two sons were all chauffeurs, a natural extension from Edgar's military days. The Browns moved to the Garden City house in approximately 1933 with some of their children. In 1934, no one was listed yet at number 12, 14 or 16 Bayberry. The Browns only stayed two years and moved back to Mineola by 1935. Later, Edgar was a night watchman in a department store.

In 1935 the second family moved in. They were Beatrice M. Schoen (b.1899) and Herman G. Schoen (1900-1987). Beatrice was born in Ireland and immigrated to the United States as a baby with her parents. The Schoens started life together in Ozone Park, Queens in 1923. He was a book printer. When they moved in to number 10 they had two young daughters, Elizabeth and Margaret. By 1940 two sons had also been born and Herman's mom moved in. It might have been tight quarters but they bought their house from Agnes Capelle in 1946. By then, daughters Betty and Marjorie were clerks. The Schoens lived there for a total of 30 years until 1965 when they sold the house.

The third family to live in the house was Karl Winski and Lydia Kubikowski Winski. The Winskis came from Brooklyn.

"I'm in the meat line; sausage manufacturing in a Polish neighborhood in Brooklyn. My cousins still own Sikorski in Greenpoint. The family business started in 1927 with my grandfather, Theodore, who was a Russian immigrant. My dad was [also] born in Russia also and started working for his dad in 1936. I'm the first generation born in the U.S. I started at work in 1954. I worked six to seven days a week, leaving at four in the morning and getting home at nine or ten at night. I was quite busy," Karl Winski stated. Sikorski's currently sells kielbasa, sausages, kiszka, hurka, babka and all sorts of Polish imports.

After the Winskis moved in, their two sons, Christopher and Mark were born. They were happy with the Garden City School system with its excellent reputation and Mr. Winski enjoyed watching his boys on the football and soccer fields.

Continued here:
My History House # 9-