Potential National Register Buildings
in
the Ratkovich Plan Area
Fresno, California
During 1993 and 1994 John Edward Powell and
assistant Michael J. McGuire conducted a historic building survey of the Ratkovich Plan
area in downtown Fresno. One of their assignments in completing this survey
was to identify properties that appeared eligible for inclusion in the
National Register of Historic
Places. Powell and McGuire identified thirteen such properties, as listed
here:
Charles B.
Evans Home (1910-1911)
473 N. Calaveras Street
Craftsman Cottage
A locally idiosyncratic example of the
Craftsman Cottage style. Additionally, it is associated with a prominent local
businessman in the automotive history of Fresno and the surrounding region.
C. W.
Forsman Property (1888)
417 N. Fresno Street
Italianate (carpenter vernacular influence)
An outstanding
example of the Carpenter-Italianate style. Italianate houses were common house
types throughout California and Fresno during the late decades of the 19th
century. There are few surviving local examples of this calibre.
Mrs. C. C.
S. Tufts Home (1889)*
2635 E. McKenzie Avenue
Queen
Anne Cottage
An excellent example of the Queen Anne Cottage style,
albeit altered over time, in a community heavily depleted of this
late-19th-century building idiom.
John B.
Frinchaboy Home (1903)
243 N. College Avenue
Queen
Anne Cottage (vernacular influence)
An excellent example of the Queen
Anne Cottage style. There are few local examples of this calibre.
Abraham Augustus Wintermute Home (ca.
1900)
261 N. Thesta Street (moved to the 400 block of N. Calavaras
Street in January 2004)
Vernacular Cottage (Queen Anne influence)
An excellent example of the Vernacular Cottage style (Queen Anne influence)
in a community significantly depleted of this building idiom.
Adam Baird
Home (1890)*
136 N. Van Ness Avenue
Italianate
An excellent example of the Italianate style. Elaborate Italianate-era
houses of this type have been systematically demolished wthin the civic center
area since the 1920s, when the first major comercial expansion of downtown
Fresno began. There are few local examples of this calibre.
Donahoo
Home (1891)*
103 N. Park Avenue
American folk
(vernacular influence)
An excellent example of the American Folk style.
Vernacular houses in this idiom were once common throughout rural California,
metropolitan Fresno and the outlying Fresno area at the turn of the century.
There are few surviving examples of this calibre.
Blue
Cross Veterinary Hospital (1936)
1821 Van Ness Avenue
H. Rafael Lake, Architect
Moderne (Art Deco influence)
An outstanding example of the
Moderne style. This style of commercial building, although prevalent in larger
urban areas of California, especially in the greater Los Angeles region, is
rare in Fresno. It is the work of a master architect (H. Rafael Lake) and
master builder (Trewhitt Shields).
Charles W.
Lowrie Home (1937)
2235 San Joaquin Street
attributed
to Edward Glass, Architect
Moderne
A rare example of a residential application of the
Moderne style in Fresno. There are only a few local examples of this calibre.
It is the work of a locally prominent architect (Edward Glass) and a master
builder (R. Pedersen).
Budd
& Quinn Showroom/Fresno Body & Fender Works (1929, 1937)
1560 H Street
Ernest J. Kump,
Sr. and Fisher & McNulty, Architects
Spanish Revival
An excellent example of the Spanish Revival style. Commercial applications
of Spanish-influenced Period Revival styles were rarely built in Fresno. It is
the work of a master building firm (Fisher & McNulty) and a master
architect (Ernest J. Kump, Sr.). (Recent major modifications made after the
date of this survey, in the form of aluminum siding, severely compromise this
building's National Register potential).
L. C.
Wesley Super Garage (1931)
862 Van Ness Avenue
H. Rafael Lake, Architect
Perpendicular
Style (Art Deco influence)
This property represents the earliest major
use of Art Deco imagery in Fresno. There were few examples in this idiom built
in the community, and fewer still survive matching this calibre of
architectural excellence. It is the work of a master builder (Shields, Fisher
& Lake) and master architect (H. Rafael Lake).
Giardina
Property (ca. 1900)
521 Van Ness Avenue
Queen
Anne
An extremely rare residential style in a community that has
preserved only a handful of resources from its once large corpus of this type.
Although Queen Anne style homes were common house types in Fresno during the
19th century and early decades of the 20th century, there are few surviving
local examples, much less of the calibre of the Giardina Property.
Joseph
Giardina Home (ca. 1900)
517 Van Ness Avenue
Queen
Anne
See description for Giardina Property (above).
*Indicates a building already in the Local
Register of Historic Resources
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