UPDATE: 4/7/10

The Fresno Bee has caught up with coverage of this fascinating building and interesting sequence of events that led to its discovery. Reporter, George Hostetter wrote the article that is feature on the website and on the front page of today’s paper.

Though, you may notice that the story told below starting on March 26th, written about on the 29th and updated since then is different from the story told in the Bee. From reading Mr. Hostetter’s article, you would have no knowledge of the tense series of events that happened moments after the facade was uncovered, including the diligent work of Joe Moore, Karana Hattersly-Drayton and Elliot Balch.

Granted the story is much more from the owner’s perspective. But reading the article I doubted myself, and that perhaps I missed something. However, looking back on corespondance, I had sent an email with link to owner, . He did not contest any of the facts I presented and responded with:

Thank you for your generous and helpful mention of my building. The use of the upper floors depends on the potential users who have an interest in locating their businesses there. My architect Gonzalo Pedroso of GP Architecture and I are open to ideas, and we will work to configure the space to meet the user’s needs. Suggested uses have been commercial or government offices, data center, and a school… – Robert Gurfield

I’d also emailed George Hostetter with a link to the article, leaving it open for him to quote or ask any questions. His response “Thank you very much, Kiel. That’s a great article you wrote. – George” I am sending an email to him to get any clarification about why the story was altered for his article. I will post any response here.

So I’m at a loss. At least the building facade is saved for the future of Fresno. That is what counts. Oh, and please note the owner and architect are “open to ideas” So continue to suggest uses for the Kress Building below.

UPDATE: 4/2/10

I had the owner’s name wrong in my post. The owner is Robert Gurfield. The contractor is William Cummings. I’ve corrected it below.

UPDATE: 3/31/10

We have word from the City of Fresno that the owner of the Kress Building, Robert Gurfield, has reconsidered the design he had approved. The owner, like everyone else didn’t know what was beneath the 1950’s facade. The owner’s new approach will be to keep the original facade intact. He will not be doing much restoration or preservation work. This may be more about cost savings than anything else.

The planned uses seem to be unchanged, with ground floor retail (1-2 tenants) and offices on the third floor (4 suites). There is also a meetingroom, breakroom and restrooms on the 2nd floor mezzanine in the back. There is not yet a use planned for the newly discovered 2nd floor mezzanine in the front.

The owner will likely have to have the architect, GP Architecture, prepare new plans. This maybe an addendum, or major modification to the plans already approved. I doubt the city would make the owner resubmit and go through the entire approval process again.

Lets keep our fingers crossed.

ORIGINAL POST 3-29-10

Fresno is a place where a stroll up the Fulton Mall can spark an effort to save a facade eligible for historic designation.

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That’s what happened to me on Friday. I was at the Downtown Association at the South end of the Fulton Mall after a birthday lunch at El Elegante in Chinatown.

Strolling up the Fulton Mall, between the Marisopa Mall and Fresno Street there was a construction site with several men at work on the awning of a building. There was a young girl of 5 or 6 glued to the temporary chain-link fence watching a worker with a sawzall attacking the awning.

I actually kept walking, then turned around to get a better look. What I saw when I actually looked, was a remarkable well preserved 1920’s facade. The cladding material was aged but still stable. The details were intact, displaying the craftsmanship of the era. Other than some broken windows and the metal channels that were screwed on to hold on the white sheet metal paneling.

I took a picture and sent it out for the world to see via twitter. At that time I thought that the construction work was to restore the original facade. I later found out that was not the case.

Local historic guru and Historic Preservation Commissioner, Joe Moore, saw my tweet and sprung into action. He forward y twitpic to City of Fresno Historic Preservation Officer, Karana Hattersley-Drayton. Soon the email chain involved Elliott Balch of the Downtown and Community Revitalization Department and John Dugan, the Planning Director.

From this back and forth I gathered that plans for a modernized facade had been approved and that was the work underway. Drawing for the project had been produces for owner out of Santa Monica, Robert Gurfield, by Moorpark architectural firm GP Architecture and contractor William Cummings

So what now? Elliott Balch is now in communication with the owner to demonstrate the valuable asset that he has on his hands. The hope is that the owner sees the light and decides to amend the approved plans to preserve this potentially historic facade.

So there you go, the power of a tweet. So keep your eyes open and camera phones at the ready. Oh, and just to be clear, I actually did very little. All the hard work was on the part of Elliott, Joe and Karana. I just take pictures and write about buildings.

Here is some info from Joe Moore’s email:

An October 27 1960 ad in the Fresno Bee (page 7E) makes reference to Kress being in the Fresno market for 36 years (1924). That date sounds about right given the architectural style and construction methods of the building (steel reinforced concrete with brick). Perhaps a Felchlin building? The alley side of the building reveals the concrete and steel construction.

The 1960 ad talks about Kress’ modern store at 1211 Fulton. A later 1973 article about Fresno cinemas mentions that Kress relocated their downtown store to the site of the former Kinema Theatre location (1211 Fulton) in 1957. This is now part of the County Health Dept complex, next to the Brix Building.

A hand painted sign, still evident today on the back of 1118 Fulton advertises the Hartfield Store on Fulton Mall, which is corroborated by vintage newspaper ads of the 1960’s.

In addition a July 5, 1924 Bee article about the construction of the Radin and Kamp Building at Fulton and Tulare makes reference to Kress, suggesting that they had been considering the Radin & Kamp site as a location for the construction of a new store.

At this point, while it’s too early to say for certain, I would presume that Kress built the 1118 Fulton building in 1924, and stayed there until 1957 when they moved to 1211 Fulton. 1118 was then remodeled for Hartfield which occupied the building till at least 1969.

Also of note: the National Building Museum in Washington DC is home to the archives of the Kress corporation, including thousands of original plans and photographs. Kress used architecture to differentiate their store from their competitors, Woolwoorth and Kresgee:

S.H. Kress & Co. (1896–1981) was one of the 20th century’s most prosperous variety-store retailers. Though never the largest chain, Kress maintained the highest per-store sales of any five-and-dime retailer for more than 20 years, beginning in 1927. The creation of an architectural division within the company played a key role in both attracting customers and facilitating sales.

Samuel H. Kress (1863–1955) envisioned his stores as works of public art that would contribute to the cityscape. To distinguish his stores from those of his competitors, namely F.W. Woolworth Co. and S.S. Kresge Co., he hired staff architects. Kress achieved retail branding success not merely through standardized signage and graphics, but through distinctive architecture and efficient design. Regardless of their style, from elaborate Gothic Revival to streamlined Art Deco, Kress stores were designed to be integral parts of their business districts and helped define Main Street America.

In 1989, the Museum secured the company’s building records, including thousands of drawings and photographs relating to the design, construction, and operation of more than 200 stores stretching from New York to Hawaii. The collection strikingly conveys the changing role architecture has played in recent retail history.
Also here’s an interesting write up on the restoration of the Kress building in Savannah, GA.