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Historical Neighborhood Rebuilt In Downtown Fresno

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  • Historical Neighborhood Rebuilt In Downtown Fresno

    HISTORICAL NEIGHBORHOOD REBUILT IN DOWNTOWN FRESNO

    ABC30.com, CA
    Jan 28 2014

    Gene Haagenson
    More: Bio, E-mail, Facebook, Twitter, Articles by Gene Haagenson, News Team

    FRESNO, Calif. (KFSN) -- A tiny new neighborhood in Downtown Fresno
    is waiting to be brought back to life.

    The City of Fresno moved and rebuilt five old houses in the area known
    as Armenian Town. The houses are tucked in right next to the Highway 41
    Freeway on the corner of M Street and Santa Clara. Fresno's Historic
    Preservation Officer, Karana Hattersley-Drayton said the neighborhood
    the oldest part of the city.

    "This whole neighborhood was part of the original Central Pacific,
    later Southern Pacific railroad town, meaning the original grid mix
    of people and then by the First World War in particular it was almost
    exclusively Armenian and that's why they say this is part of that 60
    block area called Armenian Town," Hattersley-Drayton said.

    Around the turn of this century the houses were going to be torn
    down to make way for a state Court of Appeals building and a proposed
    commercial development. But historic groups including Heritage Fresno
    went to court to force the city of Fresno's Redevelopment Agency
    to save them. After the legal battles the houses were moved to one
    parcel and sat there for a decade before finally being restored.

    "RDA and their consultants did a fabulous job they took it to heart,
    so all pieces were catalogued and saved. Some things were old, they
    fell apart, but everything was stripped painted, kept, stained glass
    windows repaired," Hattersley- Drayton said.

    Now the homes are in limbo. The recession stalled plans for an adjacent
    development. And the dissolution of the city's Redevelopment Agency
    by the state has made things complicated. The plan to turn the houses
    into homes or offices appears to be stalled.

    Doug Vagim is with Heritage Fresno, the group that fought to save
    the houses. He believes it's time for the houses to be put to use.

    "The only way to make the best of it is to open this up, get this
    fence out of here and let those who are interested in doing something
    to actually come in and do what they want to do. Right now no one
    can do anything," Vagim said.

    The director of Fresno's former redevelopment agency, Marlene Murphy,
    said the hope is to have the original developer of the Armenian Town
    project, Gunnar Andros Construction take over. Murphy said another
    plan is to sell the homes to an interested party, within the next year.

    http://abclocal.go.com/kfsn/story?section=news/local&id=9409209

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