Peek inside these historic Fresno High homes — and backstage at the Tower Theatre

The Fresno High Neighborhood Holiday Home Tour started with two goals in mind.

One was to connect its residents and homeowners with the namesake school, which has historically been a focal point in the neighborhood.

The other was to show off the uniqueness of that neighborhood, which sits in a part of town that has remained vibrant while the city has expanded northward.

“This is Central Fresno. There’s no doubt about it,” says Cathy Cirimele, secretary/treasurer of the committee that’s been hosting the annual home tour and fundraiser for nearly 30 years.

“People have a lot of conceptions about that,” she says.

“Some are misconceptions.”

This year’s tour happened Monday night. Guests were invited to walk through four homes in the neighborhood (wearing paper booties to keep out the dirt). As a special bonus, they got access to a special backstage tour of the Tower Theatre.

Because the tour is a fundraiser for Fresno High School, members of the school’s academic senate served as tour docents for the night. Drama students used their acting chops at the theater, pretending to be performers readying themselves for the stage. The school’s orchestra, band and choir groups performed throughout the tour route.

Where exactly is the Fresno High Neighborhood?

For the purposes of the home owners association (and the annual tour) the Fresno High Neighborhood runs north to south from Shields to Olive avenues and east to west from Wilson to Fruit avenues.

As the name suggests, it encompasses the area around Fresno’s original high school, at McKinley and Echo avenues. It is an enclave within the larger Tower District neighborhood, but also includes smaller neighborhood designations like the Wilson Island Tract.

This six-block neighborhood was developed in 1908 on what was then the northern edge of town. Its 80 houses “represent some of the finest examples of Period Revival and Prairie architecture in the city,” according to the city’s list of historic resources.

“A lot of these houses are more than 100 years old,” Cirimele says. Her own home (not featured on this year’s tour) was built in 1916. She’s lived there for more than 40 years.

The homes on this year’s tour were built between 1920 and 1948 and represent a history of home building in this part of Fresno. Two of the house were built by the Taylor-Wheeler company, which was one of the most prolific home builders at the time and responsible for many of the houses in the area.

One of the homes has an original fireplace, with brickwork stamped from the Craycroft Brick Co. Many of Fresno’s original buildings (long since razed) were built with Craycroft bricks.

In the past few years, the home tour integrated non-residential spaces into the tour. In 2022, guests were invited inside the First Congregational Church of Fresno, aka the Big Red Church. Last year, the Shrine of St. Therese was included.

This year, the tour included backstage access to the Tower Theatre, which opened to the public in December 1939, and celebrates its 85th anniversary Friday with three days of special events.

Cirimele says an influx of younger residents and homeowners has rejuvenated the Fresno High Neighborhood in recent years. It is evident as you walk through the neighborhood, she says, running into people at Moto Delicatessen or Gazebo Gardens, or they enjoy an ice cream at Ampersand or hang out at the newly constructed Trolley Park.

“You see really see people committed to their homes,” Cirimele says.

“It’s more than a place to sleep.”

This story was originally published December 4, 2024 at 5:30 AM.