After 25 years and $3.5M, Fresno’s historic houses are renovated. Take a peek | Opinion
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Fresno’s most hotly debated – and probably expensive – vacant houses finally have occupants.
Nearly 25 years after being removed from their original locations and a decade since they were relocated by court order to the southwest corner of Santa Clara and M streets, three century-old cottages once owned by some of the city’s first Armenian immigrants make up downtown’s newest affordable housing complex.
A ribbon-cutting ceremony is scheduled for Thursday at noon.
Hye Court (a nod to the Armenian word for “Armenian” and the nearby state appellate court) consists of the three houses, which have been completely renovated, a historic storage shed, barbecue area and green space with a monument honoring Fresno’s Armenian heritage and commemorating the two residences lost in a 2020 fire believed to be set by an unhoused person.
Opinion
A family of three moved into one of the houses last weekend. Scott Anderson, project manager for the Penstar Group, expects the other two to be occupied within a week. Monthly rents will range from $1,000 to $1,300.
“It’s going to be a terrific asset, not only for the families that live here, but for downtown,” Anderson said. “You don’t often see the little park area we created in the footprint of the two homes that unfortunately burned down. But we tried to make lemonade out of lemons, if you will.”
The story of these Armenian houses is so long and convoluted that a complete rehash would take the rest of this space. Suffice to say they once stood in the way of Old Armenian Town, an early 2000s city redevelopment project that didn’t bear fruit besides the appellate court and left several empty parcels.
All told, Hye Court will wind up costing city taxpayers more than $3.5 million. Roughly $2 million was spent to purchase, relocate and secure the houses behind a wrought-iron fence (not well enough, evidently), and it cost an additional $300,000 to demolish the two that burned.
Finally, the city also provided $1.3 million via a housing grant to Essayons LP, the Penstar Group’s development arm, to renovate the structures and improve the landscaping.
Why so much? Good ol’ city government inefficiency combined with neglect is one reason. Another is that the exteriors had to be restored to historical specifications.
The cottages themselves, which range from 721 to 1,007 square feet, were in rough shape. Thieves long ago pillaged their original fishscale siding, and squatters made a mess of their interiors. By the time renovations began, they were little more than empty shells.
In places where the historic materials could be restored, they were. Much of the railings, decorative trimming (aka “gingerbread”) and exterior doors are original. One of the houses boasts a beautiful stained glass window.
In places where the trimwork was too far gone, modern replicas were crafted. Each house was re-insulated and clad in new Hardie board siding.
“We tried to hold in place what we could,” Anderson said. “It’s not 100% historical, but we did the best we could with what we had to work with.”
Wood-frame windows mandated
The city’s Historic Preservation Commission mandated wood-frame windows, both on the interior and exterior, which had to be custom ordered and cost $140,000.
In addition, each of the windows had to remain their original sizes and in their original locations.
While the houses maintain their vintage exterior appearance, the interiors are completely modern and feature quartz countertops, vinyl floors, recessed lighting and brand new appliances.
“We spared no expense at the quality of materials, interior and exterior, with a private courtyard, outdoor kitchen, dedicated parking and fully secure,” said Fresno City Councilmember Miguel Arias, who represents downtown.
Other historic touches around Hye Court include the placement of several decades-old city streetlights and a pathway and monument built of bricks from an Armenian church that was dismantled for the Fifth District Court of Appeals.
“The bricks have been sitting in the city corp yard for 25 years, and we were able to find them,” Anderson said.
The opening of Hye Court won’t make everyone happy. The Fresno City Council’s 2022 decision to convert the cottages into affordable housing set off howls of protest from members of the Armenian community who wanted them to become “a living museum” that depicts the lives of early 20th-century Armenian immigrants.
However, those proposals never gained much traction. And something had to be done before the rest burned down or further deteriorated.
“They’ll be homes to Fresno families all over again,” Arias said, “and that’s the best way we found to preserve these historic houses.”
Is this the perfect resolution to a quarter-century old saga? No. But some resolution is better than none.
