431 - 16th Street
(Lot 15, Block 15, Plan 2)
Brandon, Manitoba
Designation Date: May 22, 2001
Designation Authority: The City of Brandon
The Yates house was designed and built in 1914 by prominent local contractor Frank C. Lissaman for James Yates, who first came to Manitoba as a child in 1877. Mr. Yates was a plumber by profession and is noted as having installed the plumbing systems in the Brandon Court House, the McKenzie Block, the Cecil Hotel, the Winter Fair Building, the Brandon Mental Health Center, the Clement Block, the Bank of Montreal, the Bank of Commerce and the Dominion Bank. The house remained in the Yates family for over 30 years.
This large, 1 ½ storey Bungalow-style home displays many elements of this style. These include a low-pitched roof, triangular brackets under the broad roof overhang, stout tapered columns supporting the porch and second storey, a canopy over the window and a vestibule. Although there are several Bungalow-style homes in Brandon, this particular style is unusual in that it did not originate in the east and spread westward like most other architectural styles. Rather, it first developed in Southern California and from there its popularity diffused up the west coast to Vancouver and then east across Canada.