Description of Historic Place

The Yerex House, an imposing 2 1/2-storey brick farmhouse built in 1916, is a municipally designated site. The house is situated on a knoll within a grassed and partially treed yard located off a rural road amidst rolling hills and large open fields in the Franklin area northwest of Neepawa. The house has been the object of a rehabilitation project, which included the creation of a new verandah and the addition of a new front door. The designation applies to the house and the land on which it sits.

Heritage Value

The Yerex House, a largely intact Edwardian-style dwelling, is one of the few large farmhouses remaining in the Neepawa area that recall the optimism and prosperity of the farming community in southwestern Manitoba in the early 1900s. Built despite the domestic exigencies associated with the First World War, the house is noted for its fine exterior design, brick construction, unusual attached garage and richly crafted interior.

Source: Rural Municipality of Rosedale By-law No. 9-2003, February 13, 2004

Character-Defining Elements

Key elements that define the heritage character of the site include:
- placement of the house on a spacious grassed and treed farmyard, with the front facing south

Key elements that define the form and finely executed Edwardian design of the Yerex House include:
- its 2 1/2 -storey rectangular volume, with smooth brick walls, a steeply pitched truncated hipped roof sheathed in tin with a fleur-de-lis pattern, extended eaves with plain modillion-type brackets, gable dormers on three sides and a single-storey attached brick garage with flat roof
- the simply articulated formal composition and balance of the front elevation
- the generous fenestration, including Palladian-style windows in the dormers, living room and dining room bay windows with leaded-glass in the upper sashes and tall rectangular openings with cut limestone sills and lintels
- refined detailing such as the thin pointing of the bricks with a charcoal-coloured line, the decorative brickwork in a second-storey belt course at the rear of the house, the iron railing in front of the second-storey window above the front door, etc.

Key character-defining elements of the dwelling's richly crafted interior include:
- the grand volumes and formal layout of interior spaces, including the east-side living room and dining room, the front side-hall staircase, the five large second-floor bedrooms accessed from a long central hall, and large open attic space
- the numerous Arts and Crafts influences, including the exceptional Craftsman-style staircase, the rich wood wall panelling in the den, dining room and foyer, the built-in cabinetry in the kitchen, pantry, dining room and second-floor hall, the dining room oak-surround fireplace with ceramic tile inlay and mirrored overmantel, etc.
- other fine finishes and details, such as the living room pocket doors, the restored woodwork and plaster, fir floors, the dumb waiter, the second-floor clothes shoot, etc.