Historic Home Tour November, 2009
Huntington Boulevard

Huntington Boulevard is the heart of one of Fresno’s most architecturally distinct neighborhoods. Grand homes, in a variety of styles, stand side-by-side with more modest ranch homes and bungalows, all facing onto a wide boulevard bisected by a grassy median. This median is a reminder of the original reason for the development of the Alta Vista Tract, first platted in 1911. Local entrepreneur Albert Graves Wishon was the General Manager for the San Joaquin Power Company, which had been purchased and reorganized by Los Angeles investors A. C. Balch and W. G. Kerckhoff. Wishon also managed the Fresno Traction Company (incorporated in 1903), which controlled all the streetcar systems in Fresno. Wishon had purchased and improved Recreation Park, located near Cedar Avenue and Ventura Street. In order to increase visitation to the park he needed an additional streetcar line, so he struck a deal with the Pacific Improvement Company, which owned the alfalfa field immediately east of downtown Fresno. The Sunnyside and Recreation Line went into service circa 1907 and ran down what is now Huntington Boulevard. The boulevard remained a route until the streetcars were removed in 1939.

As with other streetcar suburbs around the United States, the land adjacent to the streetcar line was subdivided and the Alta Vista Tract (advertised as the “Bon Ton Residence District”) was annexed to the City on January 23, 1912. Wishon himself purchased the first parcels in the new subdivision, and he completed a beautiful Arts and Crafts inspired residence at the corner of Huntington Boulevard and Sixth Street in 1916. The side streets of the division (Balch, Kerckhoff, and Platt Avenues) filled in more quickly, as clearly depicted on the Sanborn Fire Insurance map of 1918. Huntington Boulevard, with its larger lots, developed more slowly, allowing for the greater architectural mix that one sees to this day. The street was marketed to Fresno’s leading citizens and has been a preferred residence for business, education, and political leaders for the last 100 years.

Karana Hattersley-Drayton
Historic Preservation Project Manager (City of Fresno)

Each year the Huntington Boulevard Homes Association creates a calendar with Doug Hanson’s sketches of homes and street scenes along the Boulevard. This sketch appeared in 1994.

Historic Home Tour June, 2008
Old Fig 2

A visit to Old Fig Garden is a visit to an area with extraordinary garden landscapes and residences that reflect its evolution from its inception as J. C. Forkner’s grand development plan in 1912 over the next five decades. The first years of residential architecture in the 1920s and early 30s reflect the “Revival” era when period styles were popular, including Spanish, Mediterranean, Colonial, English and French Normandy, plus wonderful examples of craftsman bungalow homes. These diverse Revival homes stand alongside early adobe ranch homes from the 30s and later variations on the ranch style in the 50s and 60s. The neighborhood also includes many examples of minimal traditional homes from the 30s, 40s and 50s. What remains today in Fresno’s most distinctive neighborhood reflects the search for an idyllic life in a residential community close to an urban center that retains the amenities of country living.

Historic Home Tour 2007
Old Fig Garden

The 2007 home tour featured Old Fig Garden, one of Fresno’s most historic neighborhoods. The tour included five beautiful homes that epitomized gracious living in The Gardens.

It’s hard to imagine that Old Fig Garden was once called “outlaw” hog wallow land. Former Kansan, J. C. Forkner, believed it could be otherwise and set out in 1912 to transform this barren landscape into one of Fresno’s most prestigious neighborhoods.

Forkner purchased 12,000 acres of land between downtown Fresno and the San Joaquin River. After much research, he selected a crop--figs--that could grow despite the hardpan and sandy soil. In order to clear the land, Forkner used teams of six horses that pulled Fresno scrapers to level the hog wallows and prepare irrigation ditches. Later he created smaller scrapers and purchased 100 Fordson tractors to pull them, attracting the attention of Henry Ford who drove out in a “Tin Lizzie” to meet the man who had purchased so many of his tractors.

To break through the hardpan, Forkner then used 660,000 pounds of dynamite and proceeded to plant some 600,000 figs as well as 60,000 Deodar cedars, oleander and eucalyptus along the nine-mile Van Ness Boulevard. Forkner called this new landscape he had developed “Fig Garden”. It was an undertaking that captured everyone’s attention!

According to Forkner, “Fresno County’s wealth comes from the soil. It is created by that sure partnership, nature and man.” It was from this vision that Forkner crafted a creative marketing plan. He set out to convince prospective buyers to purchase 10 to 40 acres of Fig Garden land, build a home on it and raise figs for profit. He extolled the virtues of the fig, including the fact that fig trees can have a lifespan of over 150 years. At one time there was no fruit in California more profitable than the fig. Even Forkner’s employees, including sales staff, lived in the tract, demonstrating their commitment to this idea of a neighborhood set amid fig orchards. It was meant to be country living at its best.

Regional architectural historian, John Powell, noted that from its earliest days Fresno’s citizens planted “beautiful private and public gardens and rural landscapes.” Today mature remnants of these early landscapes grace Fresno’s numerous historic districts of which, Old Fig Garden is the best example.

The Fig Garden development is considered an historic landscape----in great part because of its prominent boulevard, Van Ness, and the Herndon Canal that helped bring irrigation water to the land. And while the idea of growing figs for profit has gone by the way, what remains is reminiscent of the search for an idyllic life in a planned community close to an urban center that retains some of the amenities of country living.

Historic Home Tour 2005
Wilson Island

The “Wilson Island” tour featured not only an early 20th century Fresno neighborhood but a wonderful group of fine period revival homes.

The area called “Wilson Island” is a six block neighborhood that is part of Fresno’s Tower District and bounded by North Echo Avenue on the west, East Carmen on the north, the northern side of East Floradora on the south and the back side of the commercial lots along North Wishon Avenue. The name “Wilson Island” is a local term that’s been in use for at least 70 years and refers to the original platting of the neighborhood which formed a backwards P shape, or “island.” Thanks to the dedicated years of research on the part of Dr. Jeannine Raymond, with support from other residents, the area is currently being proposed as a Local Historic District.

The neighborhood is a part of the larger “Wilson’s North Fresno Tract,” a subdivision first developed in 1908 by Rosanna Cooper Wilson and her son Albert Polette Wilson. The subdivision included twenty full or partial blocks. The opening of the Roeding street car line in 1912 and the Wishon Avenue line in 1014 connected this subdivision on the northern edge of town with the business community in downtown Fresno.

The first house in the Wilson Island was a traditional Craftsman Bungalow built I 1910 by William A. Mosgrove. It was eight years before the Mosgroves had any neighbors. Between 1918 and 1920, however, nineteen mansions were built by and for many of Fresno’s most influential families who had important ties ot banking, education and commerce. Lena Shaver, widow of SC. B. Shaver and architect Harrison Traver were two early residents. They were joined in the 1930’s by Dr. Frank Twining (of Twining Labs), William Eilbert (Fresno Brewery) and Louis Gundelfinger (banker). In 1954 the last two parcels in the island were developed (Raymond 2004).

Historic Home Tour 2004
Bungalows

The 2004 home tour focused on a particular residential style of architecture: arts and crafts, and the bungalow. Fresno has an extraordinary number of classic bungalows, including homes that feature the Prairie Home style, the Mission style, the Spanish Colonial, the Foursquare (or the box) style and the Log Cabin. The tour took the public into three different Fresno neighborhoods to view four very different arts and crafts homes.

The origin of the term “bungalow” is traced to the Indian province of Bengal. With the root word bangle or bangala, the common 18th century native dwelling was a one-story building with a thatched roof. They were adapted by the British, who used them as summer houses for Colonial administrators. Early bungalow designers clustered dining rooms, bedroom, kitchens and bathroom around central living rooms and created the essential floor plan of the bungalow. The house type spread to other parts of the British Empire and, eventually invaded North American. This economical, practical residential structure was well suited to our country’s population growth in the late 19th – early 20th century.

The development of the predominant house design in early 20th century American was closely associated with the Arts and Crafts movement. Founded in England in the late 1880’s as a reaction to the industrialism, this aesthetic called for a return to individual craftsman magazine, which was the main organ for the movement’s ideas. Stickly championed the use of the bungalow, and his publication did more than any other to popularize the concept of the bungalow in the United States. From his United Crafts factory, he designed and produced beautifully crafted furniture that has become synonymous with the Arts and Crafts movement and perfect furnishings for a bungalow.

The term “California Bungalow” or “California Craftsman” comes from the designs presented in Stickley’s popular magazine. Gradually, however, the word took on a life of its own, going beyond any specific connections to Stickley and was used as being characteristic of the period and associated with classic bungalows throughout the country. Typically one to one-and-a-half stories, the bungalow’s long, sloping roof line and wide overhang over the porch created a sense of closeness to the earth which was accentuated by the foundation work and porch pillars that broadened at the base.