19th-Century Gothic Details, National Historic District, Permitted Updates — $129,000

The bay windows were added in 1895. The Gothic-pointed window on the second story is older than that. Those are the kinds of details that stop you when you're walking through a house, because they're specific and they're documented and they've been there longer than anyone alive has been paying attention.

This is one of the oldest standing houses in Yreka, which sits in a National Historic District. The architectural record on it goes back to the 1880s and 1890s. The original second-story front window was designed in a pointed Gothic style. The ground-floor windows were set flush to the walls. In 1889 the exterior was refined. In 1895 the bay windows went on the sides. You can see all of that when you look at it.

The house is 1,316 square feet with three bedrooms and two baths. The plumbing and electrical have both been updated with permits, which matters more than it sounds. A lot of houses this old carry deferred work on the systems nobody sees until something goes wrong. Here that work is done and documented. What's left is cosmetic: paint, flooring, finishes. The interior is ready for someone to make decisions about it.

The history attached to this place has a name on it. Robert Nixon Jr., who published one of the first Republican newspapers in the region, is connected to the provenance. That kind of documented lineage on a residential property is unusual.

At $129,000 in a National Historic District, with Gothic detailing from the 1880s and permitted system updates already behind you, this is a house that asks you to bring taste and a paintbrush rather than a contractor for the hard stuff. The bones have been standing since the 19th century. That part has already proven itself.