The photo on the right is the Rice-Chasko home today. The only old photo we have of the house shows the roofline and chimney in the middle of this 1910 photo of the Fair Oaks Fruit Company, but shows the lay of the land when the home was built. The view is up Pennsylvania from Winding Way. The house at middle top was built by the Croft family and burned in 1925.

Location: 7848 Orange Avenue, Fair Oaks, Date of construction: 1902, Architecture:"plain old farmhouse" Previous Owners: Henry & Phoebe Rice, Walter Obershain, Clifford Stice and Joe King
Present Owner: Jessie Chasko

Henry and Phoebe Rice and three of their four sons, Dewitt (Iva Langness' father), William, and Rosco came to Fair Oaks from Minnesota in 1902. Their fourth son, Immer, came several years later. Henry bought two properties in western Fair Oaks, farmed one near the cemetery and built his house on the Orange Avenue property. He raised over 100 trees - pears, peach, fig, citrus, 20 almond, 40 olive, and grape vines for 11 years until his death in 1913. His wife Phoebe died six years later and the property was sold to Walter Obershain.

Andrew Chasko and his wife Jessie moved to Fair Oaks in 1947 and took an interest in the property, but the owner didn't want to sell. In 1956 the Chasko family moved into the house as renters, and purchased the 5-acre property in 1957 for $12,500. The family has lived in the house ever since.

The 2-story home has two basements, one general purpose and the other for fruit and preserves. The Chasko family has remodeled much of the house over the 50 years they have lived there, including the living room, dining room, 4 bedrooms, 2 1/2 baths, the furnace and air conditioning. A severe storm resulted in the south side of the house and laundry room "falling off." Jessie wanted to put up fencing so they could have animals/rent pasture. Near the time of Andrew's passing, the neighborhood men came to her aid with their power tools and put up fences. Over time, the family had cattle, chickens and ducks. They sold milk and eggs.

Andrew Chasko had a tire shop in Sacramento for many years. During WWII, he was a fighter pilot. He died in 2002. Jessie was a nurse at the Brighham Hospital in Boston. All 4 of the Chasko children grew up on the property and walked to Fair Oaks School. The property is now occupied by Jessie's granddaughter and her family.

Jesse Casko and her oldest daughter Jessica Denning gave information on their property.

Jane Whitnack was reporter for this story.