Fred and Mary Yates House
318 6th St. S.
Logs and Lumber
Fred Yates was born in Indiana in February of 1849; Mary, his wife, was born in Ohio in December of 1847. They were married in 1872, and relatively old when they had this house built at 318 South Sixth Street in Wilson’s Addition. When it was built in 1889, the tax assessor valued it at $3,600. Living in the house with them was a daughter, Flora, born in Minnesota in July, 1876; and a son, Dean, born in July of 1877.
During his time in this house, Fred was associated with the office of the Minnesota Surveyor of Logs and Lumber. In 1905, he is listed in the Stillwater City Directory as a deputy log surveyor. Among the duties of this office was the requirement they keep an accurate account of all the log marks by which the lumber companies sorted out their own logs at the boom site.
Fred was also elected as a state legislator in 1897.
Mary Yates died on March 15, 1923, however it appears Fred did not die in Minnesota for there is no death certificate on file.
This house is representative of a number of Stick Style houses built in Stillwater in the late 1880s. There are very similar houses at 717, 801, and 811 West Pine Street. The steeply pitched cross gable roofs, the decorative truss at the apex of the front gable, the horizontal and vertical bands raised from the wall for emphasis, and an open front porch with spindle work are all characteristics of the Stick Style. It also has a double front door with a transom, and some colorful shingles on the roof of the side porch and in the front and side gable.
— Research by Donald Empson, Empson Archives for the City of Stillwater's Heirlooms Home and Landmark Sites Program