The Benjamin Franklin Gates House is an historic home and farm complex located on the north side of Lee Road, just east of where Mix Road intersects from the south. Gates, the descendant of English colonists who had moved from Massachusetts to Ontario County, in turn moved to Barre around 1830. His initial purchase of 10 acres was enlarged with 19 acres the following year, creating the present lot. The house was built around that time. The house is centered on a Greek Revival style house using the unusual stacked-plank structural system. Its stacked-plank structural system may have been employed due to the surplus of wood from land being cleared at the time and the dearth of skilled carpenters in the area. Gates was a pioneer in the settlement of Barre who established the first tannery in the town and later became one of its most prominent early citizens. The tannery burned down sometime before 1874.
