Huntington seeks historic designation for restored home of 2 original Commack families
Huntington officials are moving to give local historic designation to the Hubbs Burr House in Commack, considered by the town historian to be one of the best examples of a Queen Anne-style home in the town.
The owners of the Burr Road home and property, Akira Kido and Jeff Hickman, have requested the designation after investing $500,000 to restore the home to its original glory inside and out.
Hickman said the designation will help the home last for generations.
"My wife and I think of ourselves as temporary caretakers of the house," he said. "We’re just taking care of it now, when we move on or pass on ... we hope that someone else will take this house on and love it half as much as we did."
The house, built in 1888, is the onetime home of Carll S. Burr Jr., a scion of one of the early prominent families in the area, and a state senator from 1905 to 1908, according to a report from the town’s Historic Preservation Committee in making the recommendation to the town board for local historic designation.
Besides the home’s architecture, its affiliation with the Hubbs and Burrs, who were among the original families to settle in Commack, make it eligible for local historic designation, according to the report.
The commission is charged with helping the town board identify properties that should be conserved and protected.
The two-and-a-half-story home, with six bedrooms and seven fireplaces, features a grand staircase and coffered ceilings. The house was built as a summer home by Manley Hubbs, a wholesale fruit dealer, according to the preservation commission report.
He eventually sold the property to Burr Jr.
Before Kido and Hickman purchased the house in 2017, it was obscured from the road by shrubs and overgrown vegetation. A year later, the couple began the restoration, starting with a new gable roof, repairing the two chimneys, rebuilding both porches and replacing seven windows. The house paint color went from white to baked cumin and waller green in keeping with what historians believe the house would have looked like in its heyday, Kido said.
Work on the inside was less intensive with cleaning, painting and polishing and replacement of some woodwork.
"They have done a tremendous job of restoring the house," Town Historian Robert Hughes said.
"Historic designation allows the town to stop demolition and control changes to the exterior," Hughes said.
The house is directly across the street from the Carll Burr Mansion built around 1832.
That house and property received local historic designation in 2003, the report said. It’s also listed on the National Register of Historic Places.
The town board will hold a public hearing on the designation on Nov. 7 during its meeting which begins at 6 p.m.
Huntington officials are moving to give local historic designation to the Hubbs Burr House in Commack, considered by the town historian to be one of the best examples of a Queen Anne-style home in the town.
The owners of the Burr Road home and property, Akira Kido and Jeff Hickman, have requested the designation after investing $500,000 to restore the home to its original glory inside and out.
Hickman said the designation will help the home last for generations.
"My wife and I think of ourselves as temporary caretakers of the house," he said. "We’re just taking care of it now, when we move on or pass on ... we hope that someone else will take this house on and love it half as much as we did."
The house, built in 1888, is the onetime home of Carll S. Burr Jr., a scion of one of the early prominent families in the area, and a state senator from 1905 to 1908, according to a report from the town’s Historic Preservation Committee in making the recommendation to the town board for local historic designation.
Besides the home’s architecture, its affiliation with the Hubbs and Burrs, who were among the original families to settle in Commack, make it eligible for local historic designation, according to the report.
The commission is charged with helping the town board identify properties that should be conserved and protected.
The two-and-a-half-story home, with six bedrooms and seven fireplaces, features a grand staircase and coffered ceilings. The house was built as a summer home by Manley Hubbs, a wholesale fruit dealer, according to the preservation commission report.
He eventually sold the property to Burr Jr.
Before Kido and Hickman purchased the house in 2017, it was obscured from the road by shrubs and overgrown vegetation. A year later, the couple began the restoration, starting with a new gable roof, repairing the two chimneys, rebuilding both porches and replacing seven windows. The house paint color went from white to baked cumin and waller green in keeping with what historians believe the house would have looked like in its heyday, Kido said.
Work on the inside was less intensive with cleaning, painting and polishing and replacement of some woodwork.
"They have done a tremendous job of restoring the house," Town Historian Robert Hughes said.
"Historic designation allows the town to stop demolition and control changes to the exterior," Hughes said.
The house is directly across the street from the Carll Burr Mansion built around 1832.
That house and property received local historic designation in 2003, the report said. It’s also listed on the National Register of Historic Places.
The town board will hold a public hearing on the designation on Nov. 7 during its meeting which begins at 6 p.m.
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