Horace Askwith was born September 23, 1885 in Avoca, Iowa, a small farming town 40 miles northeast of the twin cities of Council Bluffs, Iowa / Omaha, Nebraska. He married Telitha Stow in Omaha on April 27, 1907 and by 1909 the young couple had moved to Portland. Their son Williams Horace Askwith was born that year. The 1910 census shows the young family living at 3596 SE Grant Court, Horace’s profession listed as real estate.

City directories between 1910-1915 listed Askwith variously as a real estate agent, an architect and a building contractor. By 1913 he had begun to build houses in the Alberta district, Alameda, Irvington and Laurelhurst. He may well have built homes he designed, or from existing house plans, or both.

Several of Askwith’s earlier homes were demolished but enough of his work remains to suggest he favored a design with roof peak and gable ends running parallel with the street, a prominent center entry, pillars or posts anchoring the front porch, and shed-roofed dormers establishing the second-floor living space.

In 1917 Askwith was hired by the Oregon-Washington Railroad and Navigation Company (OWR&N) to design and build significant alterations to the boiler house at the company’s headquarters in lower Albina. That year marked the end of his private homebuilding career and by 1918 he was listed in the city directory as “Superintendent Architect for the OWR&N.” No further residences show up in newspaper references after this time.

A partial listing of homes built by Horace Askwith includes:

Northwest corner SE 35^th Place and Clinton              1910 (demolished)

NE 20th between Knott and Stanton                         1913 (demolished)

4034 NE Davis 41st                                                     March 1914

424 NE Hazelfern Place                                              January 1914

East ash between 39th and 41st                                March 1914 (demolished)

3169 and 3163 NE Regents                                        April 1914

4232 NE Royal Court                                                   August 1914

E. 45th corner with Clay for F.W. Pratt                      February 1915 NF

2126 SE 56th for Ray W. Steel                                    May 1915

N. Denver near Jessup for Clifford Warren                July 1915 (demolished)

2616 NE 14^th                                                               August 1915

4000 NE Hassalo                                                         June 1916

3807 NE 8^th                                                                 June 1916 (demolished)

6132 NE 13^th                                                               February 1917 (demolished)

3627 NE Couch                                                           April 1917

4116 NE Flanders for C.A. Minor                                July 1917

25 NE Meikle Place                                                     July 1917

OWR&N alterations to the boiler house in Albina     July 1917

In August 1922 at age 36, Askwith was committed to the Oregon State Hospital in Salem. He died on March 26, 1923 of general paresis, a type of dementia caused by untreated syphilis, leaving behind his 13-year-old son and wife Telitha, then age 37.