The original home here had the address of 601 Otsego Street but at some time during or after 1995 Harford County changed the address to 600-606 North Stokes Street—it is on the northwest corner of Otsego and North Stokes Streets.

William J. and Esther A. Reasin (1846-1920) probably built the home that was here in the 1880s when raising their children. William preceded Esther Reasin in death and when she died her heirs, S. Russell Reasin, Elizabeth I. Reasin, and Emily B. Reasin, sold this property to Michael P. Boyd (1860-1941) and Margaret Conner Boyd (1861-1925) in 1921. Michael was a WWI veteran having served in the Army; he was a drayman, and later served as an Associate Judge of Elections in 1934 and 1940, and a Clerk of Elections in 1936. Michael’s first wife died at the age of 32 after they had two children; he had seven more children after he married Margaret and moved to this home.

Alice “Marie” Bannister Boyd, (1919-2019) grew up in this house along with several of her siblings (children of Michael and Margaret Boyd), one of whom was Mae Cecilia Boyd (1907-1988); Mae was the subject of a Harford County Living Treasures interview in 1981 in which she spoke about growing up on a farm in Havre de Grace (on Erie Street), skating on the frozen river, and playing in the flooded Lock House on Conesteo Street. Marie Bannister Boyd and her husband, William H. “Harry” Boyd, had three children: Michael Patrick Boyd, Sr.; James “Kevin” Boyd; and William H. “Bill” Boyd, Jr.

In 1939, Michael Boyd as a widower sold this property to three of his children and members of the Boyd family continued to live here. Surviving Boyd heirs in 1964 sold the property to Joseph Edward Walter and Jessie Lee Walter who owned this for about three years before the death of Joseph Walter. The widowed Jessie in 1967 sold this large yellow home with a porch to Carey and Mary Lynn Snyder, who are still active in the real estate business in town. After they conveyed the property to Mary Lynn Snyder individually, she owned it until 1975. Mary Lynn Snyder sold this to John Robert “Johnny” Duff (1935-2000). Johnny was a barber by profession but loved motorcycles, fast cars and drag racing. Jeff Horne remembers that Johnny would drag race his automatic AMX and brag about how it would shift through the gears faster than most stick shifts! Johnny even had a three-wheeled motorcycle in the 1970s.

Johnny used to work for Stan Rodia, Sr. next to Tim’s Tavern on St. John Street but when Stan Sr. died in 1973 Johnny opened “Johnny’s Barber Shop” at 465 Franklin Street. Stan Rodia, Jr. says, “Johnny was quite the character with his ’64 Buick Riviera and later his green ’68 AMC AMX that he raced all over the country. He hit a telephone pole with it and almost killed himself! They had to wire him back together at Johns Hopkins. . . but he made it back. Really great guy.” Charles Packard remembers the accident because he was on the ambulance crew that night and Johnny was hurt badly.

After he recovered, Johnny had a barber shop in his home here, along with a barber pole outside. In 1995, five years before he died, Johnny sold this home to EBA, LLC, of Bel Air. At some point not long after that the house caught fire and burned to the ground. The property, reaching back to Linden Lane has been subdivided into four 3,280 square-foot lots with North Stokes Street addresses. The lots remain unimproved and empty but continue to be owned by EBA, LLC.

County Records
600-606 North Stokes Street, four 3280 square-foot lots.