Yawkey was a co-owner of a firm in Saginaw, Michigan, before moving to Wausau to purchase large tracts of land for lumber.

[4] The house was built in 1900 to 1901, designed in Beaux-Arts Classical style by Van Ryn & DeGelleke of Milwaukee.

Six years later Yawkey hired prominent Prairie School architect George W. Maher to remodel the house.

Their daughter, philanthropist Leigh Yawkey Woodson, donated the house to the Marathon County Historical Society.

Cyrus's den, part of Leigh's suite, the sun porch, and the small bump out which was built onto the dining room, all designed by George Maher, were added eight years after the Yawkeys moved in.