Page 168 - People & Places In Time

Fresno
When Holly and I first met, I was living in an apartment with a friend and former high school team- mate, Chuck Aston. I mention this because, this was one of the neatest places I have ever lived. Located in the Tower District of Fresno and built in the 1930’s, it was rumored to have been the sight of storied parties frequented by many of Fresno’s present-day notables (the present referring to the 1970’s). The complex of apart- ments lay behind offices fronting Fulton Street, hence the name, Fultonia apartments. Though one apartment was separate from the others, the penthouse, the one we had, was located up a separate staircase, above the front offices, and looked down onto Fulton.
Traveling down our apartment’s namesake street for several blocks south of Belmont, Fulton becomes
the main thoroughfare in downtown Fresno . . . this was prior to some forty years spent as a landscaped mall, then to have recently become restored back as a regular street. A few blocks north, is City College where Fresno State was located before 1956; after which the college was moved north to a new campus on Shaw Avenue. There was, then, a trolley that ran between the college and downtown, along Fulton, passing just beneath our apartment’s balcony. (by 1939 all of Fresno’s trolleys were gone) Our location placed us at what was the center
of activity in Fresno during the 1930’s and 40’s. I know my mother had mentioned, that while attending Fresno State in the 1930’s she would pay 10 cents to take the trolley downtown, passing beneath the apartment where I would be living forty years later, when I was at Fresno State. She then could catch a bus back to Visalia to visit her home on the farm where she had grown up, but would not live again.
Passing by the beautiful and large homes lining Fulton and Van Ness Boulevard, it’s clear this was a different neighborhood and city, back then. It’s hard to believe, as things appear today. . . yet I can remember shopping in downtown Fresno as a young boy. Accom- panying my mother, going to Rodders or Berkleys for her clothes and shoe shopping; then to Roos Atkins for my clothes for school, and then perhaps to the Hotel Fresno for lunch. I’ve heard from others than myself; that downtown Fresno was not unlike being in down-
Van Ness Boulevard near Fresno High School has re- mained the same for at least 100 years. This is the path I ran along nearly every evening.
town San Francisco. Though partial to both cities my preference leans to San Francisco, at least toward the city I knew fifty years ago; each has changed, each with memories, I do see the similarity.
Back to the apartment from another era the entry is directly into the living room, which was perhaps twenty-five or more feet long, as it wrapped around a corner, creating a smaller alcove like area with built in bookshelves and casement windows on two sides; this was my favorite space to sit and read. Large floor to ceiling windows filled the front wall with an eight-foot- wide and heavy, glass sliding door leading to the cov- ered balcony. This was more than a balcony, it’s a wide patio separated from the street by a fourteen-inch-wide, and thirty-inch-low plaster wall that extended nearly the entire length of the apartment. About every twelve feet or so were two in line, four-inch pipe columns hold-
ing up the ten-foot-high roof that extended out toward the street and beyond the low wall; this space nearly doubled the living area. When it was raining, here was the perfect place to sit outside, or if too cold to remain inside with the large sliding door opened, listening to the storm fall onto Fulton Street. A neon sign advertising the real estate offices below was attached just beyond the low wall adding a nice effect at night. The front bed room was large with its own sliding door to match the living room; this door opened onto the front balcony as well. Down a short hall was the second smaller bed- room and then a long narrow bathroom with two vani- ties separated by a large walk-in shower unusual for a bathroom in a place built during this era. The kitchen and dining area were separated from the living room by a wall containing low built-in shelves with a wider shelf on top, this held my hi-fidelity equipment nicely. Behind this shelving inside the wall was concealed a wide, perhaps five-foot pocket door; more like a sliding wall
of decretive plastic framed in wood that when closed, left no hint of what was now hidden. With this door shut and the kitchen light on, a subtle glow filtered into the living room through the plastic. The kitchen though was small and nondescript with painted metal cabinetry that was popular at the time.
Looking north along Fulton Street in 1961. This being before the pedestrian mall was built in the mid 60’s; since restored to the the original street as seen in this photograph.
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