Turning historic Fresno house into Armenian museum would help atone for the past

We cannot go back in time and erase racist land covenants that dictated where Fresno’s early Armenian immigrants could buy or lease property.

Nor can we order Caltrans to tear down the freeway that divided (some would say “destroyed”) the historic neighborhood of Old Armenian Town.

We can’t take back the ill-fated development of the same name, the one that used eminent domain to displace families from their homes in order to clear land for a cluster of new buildings. Two decades later, we’re left with a bunch of empty lots and a lightly used courthouse.

Nor can we prevent two of the five century-old Armenian houses – relocated and repaired at much taxpayer expense in accordance with a court order after they were pillaged – from burning down in a June 2020 arson fire.

History doesn’t allow for do-overs. Leaving us to learn, try not to repeat the same mistakes and, if possible, make amends.

Opinion

Which is the uncomfortable place Fresno currently finds itself.

A recent city council vote to sell the three off remaining homes at M and Santa Clara streets – made with little advance notice, zero community outreach and under a confusing name – provoked widespread shock and anger from Fresno’s Armenian community. Rather than a museum or cultural center, the houses are slated to become an affordable housing project. Construction will begin this week, according to Fresno City Councilmember Miguel Arias, despite community opposition.

(To better gauge the public outcry, read the recent Valley Voices op-ed with “cultural genocide” in the headline. Or watch a video replay of the Historic Preservation Commission’s Oct. 24 meeting.)

In an attempt to made amends, and perhaps quell some of that anger, Fresno Mayor Jerry Dyer “coordinated” (his word) a meeting between himself and other city officials, the developer, the honorary consul to Armenia and Armenian Cultural Conservancy board members about moving the Vartanian house to an empty lot in Old Armenian Town. Where it would serve as a museum and cultural center befitting one of the city’s oldest neighborhoods.

Historic house needs a new home

Yes, I made that exact suggestion last month. I did so knowing the Vartanian house was in need of rescue and about prior attempts to relocate the 128-year-old historically listed structure. Including one by Van Der Mugrdechian of the Armenian Cultural Conservancy, a local nonprofit (founded in 2016 as an offshoot to Historic Fresno) dedicated to preserving and interpreting the Armenian-American experience in the Central Valley.

The Armenian Cultural Conservancy has for years collected donated artifacts meant to help depict the lives of Fresno’s early immigrants from Armenia, but the group doesn’t have a place to showcase them. The Vartanian house would serve nicely, and since 2019 the conservancy has tried to raise the necessary funding and support to acquire and move it.

Those efforts haven’t been successful, but Der Mugrdechian senses the momentum has shifted since the public outcry over the surprise sale of the three homes.

“Before I was just making presentations and nothing ever became of them,” Der Mugrdechian said. “Now with everything that’s going on, it’s gotten to a different level.”

Built in 1894 for Howvageem Vartarian, one of Fresno’s earliest Armenian immigrants, the Vartanian house sits on a corner of the Fresno Mission campus, cut off from neighborhood street access by the Golden State Boulevard onramp to Highway 99. (It was also the childhood home of Poverello House founder “Papa” Mike McGarvin, at least according to legend.)

Designed in the Queene Anne cottage style with 14-foot-tall ceilings, the 1,600-square-foot structure has been unoccupied since 2018. It will be left on its own once the mission shifts most services and operations to a new Dakota Avenue campus due to high-speed rail realignment downtown.

Which is practically an invitation for bad things to happen.

Fresno Mission CEO Matthew Dildine said he has signed a new memorandum of understanding to gift the Vartanian house and three outbuildings (including a barn and distinctive two-story octagonal tank house) to the Armenian Cultural Conservancy.

The next step would be to relocate the four structures to a vacant lot at the southeast corner of Ventura and M streets directly across M from Fresno’s most distinguished Armenian cultural landmark, the Holy Trinity Church.

“Ventura is the gateway to downtown for people coming off the freeway,” Der Mugrdechian said. “It’s a great location for a museum and everything we want to do.”

Dyer: ‘Devil is in the details’

“Everything” includes an office for both the Armenian Cultural Conservancy and Berj Apkarian, the Fresno-based honorary consul to Armenia. Der Mugrdechian also suggested one of the rooms could be used as a welcome center for tourists.

Gee, can you think of a city in need of that?

Dyer told me (via email) he is “supportive of the overall vision but as always, the devil is in the details.”

So many details need to be worked out that I won’t even bother getting into them all. Not the least of which will be coming up with the necessary capital to relocate the homes, get them placed on new foundations and connected to infrastructure. Arias believes all that will cost $3 million and could also be complicated by an environmental review. Der Mugrdechian estimates $2 million or less.

“We’ve got to have the plan and the money before any of this happens,” Der Mugrdechian said.

State funding is a possibility. Assemblyman Joaquin Arambula sent a staff member to Monday’s meeting to express his support for the Vartarian house proposal and suggest he could request $1 million in next year’s budget to aid the effort.

“He wants to make sure the historical landmarks in areas he represents can stay and to see if he can help,” said Maria Lemus, Arambula’s district director.

We may not be able to change the most dubious parts of local history. But we can at least try to atone for them. Creating a museum in Fresno’s historic Armenian neighborhood that celebrates the city’s rich Armenian heritage is another step in that direction.