YOUR BEAUTIFUL HOME

Thu., May 26, 2005

Cheryl-Anne Millsap cheryl-annem@spokesman.comr

303 Johnson Road, Pullman

When the sturdy white farmhouse, with its wide wrap-around front porch and gabled roof with a three-window dormer, was built in 1920, it was built to last. It had a full basement, 1 1/2 bathrooms, a coal furnace and a generator for electricity. It was a thoroughly modern house.

James Askins was a young man when his family rented it in 1936 and then purchased it after the death of his father in 1940.

The next year, Askins brought his bride, Betty, to the family home where they raised three daughters, and where he farmed the surrounding acreage.

Nearly 70 years later, Askins is still proud of the house that overlooks the fields on the outskirts of a city that creeps ever closer.

Askins’ hobby is creating metal sculptures which ornament the gardens surrounding his home.

“I always say, this house is my second love,” Askins says. “My wife and my children are my first.”

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