Lost, Hidden, and Saved Homes

Methvin Street, site of Heritage Plaza

Date of construction: 1880's
Architectural Style: Queen Anne
Razed: 1929

A Mid-Victorian style home with 6 wood-burning fireplaces and inside shutter blinds, the Yates home was built with the finest materials available from the Yates-Noble Lumber Company.

Jack Williams Yates was born in Henderson in 1857 and moved to Longview as a young man. A charter founder of the First National Bank in 1889, his family remained officially connected with the organization and served on the board until the late 1960’s. Other business interests included his serving as President of the Kelly Plow Company, 1892. Jack organized the Jack Yates Bible Class of the Kelly Memorial Methodist Church, which became the Men’s Bible Class of First Methodist Church.

The first Mrs. Yates was a Northcutt who died in childbirth. The second wife, the former Mary Alice Kelly, was born in Kellyville near Jefferson in 1867 and moved to Longview in 1882 with her family when the Kelly Plow Works relocated in Longview. A graduate of the New England Conservatory of Music in Boston, she played the first music in the downtown Methodist Church.

The house was in a prominent location with the streetcar passing in front as it took passengers from "The Junction" into downtown.

Following the death of Mr. Yates in 1907, Mrs. Yates continued to live in the home with her children and step-children. When her daughter Genevieve married Dr. V.R. Hurst, the young couple moved into the home and began raising their young family there.

With the discovery of oil, homes were rapidly demolished to make way for commerce. The Yates home was razed in 1929 to allow for the construction of the Gregg Hotel, completed in 1930, and the first oil leases in Longview were signed there.

The location of the Yates home is now Heritage Plaza.