Rutherford B. H. Yates House

The Rutherford B. H. Yates house at 1314 Andrews Street was built for Rutherford Birchard Hayes Yates (1878-1944) in 1912.  Yates was the son of Reverend John Henry (“Jack”) Yates, the first full-time pastor of the Antioch Missionary Baptist Church, organized in 1866 for emancipated slaves.  The elder Yates had built a house, the oldest datable building in Freedmen’s Town, next door at 1318 Andrews, and it was in that house (since moved to Sam Houston Park) that young Rutherford grew up.

Rutherford graduated from Bishop College in Marshall, Texas in 1906 with a degree in printing.  He taught school for a time in Vinto, Louisiana and in Palestine, Texas, before returning to Houston in 1908 with his wife and infant daughter, residing in the Yates family house until the completion of 1314 Andrews.  He taught at the Houston Academy (founded by his father), where he had attended school as a young boy, and worked at several printing companies.  In 1922, Rutherford and his brother Paul founded the Yates Printing Company, the first Black-owned printing press in Houston, which published Black newspapers such as the Texas Freedman, Houston Informer, and Houston Defender.  

Rutherford and his wife, Erie (nee Sherrod), also a graduate of Bishop College, had three children, Johnnie Mae, Olee and Rutherford Jr.  The family valued education and the written word, as well as public service.  Years later, Olee recalled visiting surrounding towns and plantations with her mother to teach freed slaves and their descendants how to read, foreshadowing her own career as an educator.  At a time when hotels and other commercial lodging for Black visitors to Houston was limited, Rutherford and Erie Yates often opened their home to visiting delegates and dignitaries to churches and conventions.  Indeed, the house features a separate exterior door to the guest quarters for just this purpose.

The house was eventually abandoned and neglected for many years, and fell into disrepair.  After the house narrowly escaped demolition in 1995, Olee Yates McCullough, Rutherford’s daughter, prevailed on us to acquire it and preserve it.  It underwent a thorough restoration in 1996, and the name of its original owner was adopted as the name of the Museum.  The house was designated a Landmark by the City of Houston in 1996, having already been incorporated into the Freedmen’s Town National Register Historic District at its formation in 1985.

1314 Andrews Street is a graceful, single-story Queen Anne-style wood-frame house with a wraparound porch and prominent front-facing gable.  It is a late example of the style, incorporating a mixture of Queen Anne and Classical Revival features such as rounded porch columns, a front door with transom and sidelights, and leaded-glass windows.