Restaurant's history tracks back to 1964

Published online on Sunday, Nov. 01, 2009

Question: What is the history of the BoxCar Cafe at Pearl and Hamilton avenues? How old is the cafe and who was the original owner?

-- Gerald Neufeld, Fresno

Answer: The cafe at 2949 E. Hamilton Ave. at the corner of South Pearl Avenue was called Sally's Cafe when it first appeared in the Fresno city directory in 1964. It was owned and operated by Sirapi Marashian.

It changed owners and names three times during the 1980s, becoming Meva's, Zilfred's and Vang's restaurants, said Melissa Scroggins, a librarian in the California History and Genealogy Room at the Fresno County Library's downtown branch.

In 1993, the cafe changed owners again and was called Lee's Restaurant. There is no information about the cafe's ownership until 1998, when it is listed as the BoxCar Cafe, owned by Donna Willis.

The front and side of the small building are painted to look like a red box car.

Naomi Beyer has owned and operated the BoxCar Cafe for the past two years. It's open from 7 a.m. to 2 p.m. Monday through Friday serving breakfast and lunch.

Q: When I was in the ninth grade at Sequoia Junior High in 1958-59, our class gave the school a 10-foot-wide cross section of a sequoia tree that was mounted on its edge in front of the school. It's no longer there. What happened to it?

-- Gayle Lopopolo, Fresno

A: The tree slab was removed at the request of the principal of the school, which is now Sequoia Middle School, said Susan Bedi, spokeswoman for Fresno Unified School District.

"It had deteriorated and there was a concern that it could be pushed over and cause a safety issue," Bedi said.

* More on Furlong Field: After the Ask Me answer about Frank Furlong's airfield ran on Oct. 19, his daughter, Joyce Furlong Ayerza of Fresno, sent an e-mail sharing memories of Frank, who died in 1957, and Lydia Furlong, who is 95.

During World War II, the Furlongs moved to Santa Monica, where they worked for Douglas Aircraft Co., Ayerza wrote. "Mom was a 'Rosie the Riveter' and Dad was an inspector, not a test pilot."

After the war, the Furlongs started Central Air Services at the Fresno airfield, where airplanes were repaired, flight instructors gave lessons and private airplanes were kept. It was a refueling stop for pilots flying between Northern and Southern California and crop duster companies also operated out of the airport.

"Dad and Mom probably owned 12 airplanes to provide the flying lessons, but there were many more airplanes that were privately owned," Ayerza wrote.

"Dad took many people [for] their first airplane ride," Ayerza wrote. "He would never do any acrobatics ... as he didn't want to scare them -- he wanted them to return and take flying lessons."

Furlong was a member of the Fresno County sheriff's reserve and air squadron and donated some land at the airport for a pistol range.

The Furlongs built a nine-seat restaurant at the airfield. "My Mom was famous for her hamburgers and one time served [Hollywood actors] Dick Haymes and Rita Hayworth. She knew they were famous but didn't know who they were until my Dad came in and said, 'Do you know who you just served?' "

Lydia Furlong was a licensed pilot. "She'd take me flying in the mornings before school to keep her license valid," Ayerza wrote. "In those days, you had to log so many hours to keep a license valid. That made it fun for me."

Ayerza has pictures of the only custom car built for her father in 1948. She recalls he sold it in the early 1950s, but not to a movie company official, as newspaper stories reported.

In the 1950s, the flying business soured, Ayerza recalls, and her father remodeled one of the five hangars to raise chickens. In the first year, "the price of feed got higher than the price he could get for chickens" she said, and he quit the business.