First a fire, now a sale of historic Armenian homes that were meant to become a museum
A phone call from a friend late Wednesday night asked if I was aware that the Fresno City Council was about to decide on the future of the homes in old Armenian Town. I was not.
We have corresponded with the city of Fresno since 2010 regarding the Old Armenian Town project. The purpose was to use the five historical residences as a historic-cultural town museum for public use. The neighborhood is on the corner of “M” and Santa Clara, where two other landmarks — the Holy Trinity Armenian Apostolic Church in 1900 and the Valley Lahvosh Bakery in 1922 — were founded. It represents a segment of an early 20th century Fresno neighborhood, where immigrants of various nationalities settled.
We have met with the Redevelopment Agency (RDA) several times, followed by the Successor Agency to the RDA. We also submitted proposals to the city through councilmembers, city managers, previous mayors and the current developer. We spelled out the benefit of our concept collectively to promote and complement the ethnic fabric of the Fresno community and conceptually:
▪ Renovate a neglected section of downtown and preserve historic sites.
▪ Convert the homes into galleries exhibiting various historical artifacts the immigrants had brought.
▪ Attract tourism and help revitalize downtown neighborhoods.
▪ Showcase the history and the contribution of the early settlers in Central California.
During 2012-15 RDA renovated the exterior of the five homes to their original look. We suggested to the RDA to keep the interior of the houses completely gutted to provide us the flexibility to redesign as exhibition areas for our needs, which they did.
I was board chairman at the Holy Trinity Church when we also underwent extensive renovation. We both faced numerous vandalisms. We end up hiring 24/7 private security. I also suggested to RDA a wrought-iron fence be installed along the perimeter of the five-home complex to protect over the $2 million investment the city had made thus far and to prevent intruders from vandalizing the homes. It needed to have the approval of the governor’s office, as due to favoritism between the cities, their affiliated RDAs, and the developers, Gov. Jerry Brown had shot down all the RDA offices statewide. It took over a year and a half to get the job done.
In our proposals, we expressed our readiness and willingness to raise the necessary funds at no cost to the city, provided that the City Council, through the RDA, approved our request. We were not interested in making headlines or beginning any capital campaign until we had a confirmed site. We never received a positive answer.
For the past 12 years, RDA has unsuccessfully tried to attract businesses. Other organizations had different ideas.
In June 2020, two of the five houses were burned down, presumably by intruders. Shortly after that, a councilmember announced that the city would move William Saroyan’s childhood home to that location in two months. That never took place. But the plaque on historic Saroyan Home on El Monte is no longer.
I am disturbed. On Thursday, the city, through the Successor Agency of RDA, submitted council approval to sell the houses to the developer for $66,000 and provide him with a $1.2 million loan to convert them into livable space. “The loan shell consists of $662,486 in Housing Set-Aside Fund, and $558,614 in funds contributed to from Fresno Revitalization Corporation.”
The affordable housing shortage is not an excuse for such an attitude.
The executive director of the RDA is the coordinator of the operations. The city of Fresno councilmembers also serve on RDA’s board of directors.
You are free to come up with your conclusion.
Varoujan Der Simonian is the director of the Armenian Museum of Fresno
