REPORT TO THE CITY COUNCIL
FROM: JENNIFER K. CLARK, AICP, Director
Planning and Development Department
BY: ASHLEY ATKINSON, AICP, Assistant Director
Planning and Development Department
SUBJECT
Title
HEARING to consider adoption of a resolution designating a property to the Local Register of Historic Resources.
1. RESOLUTION - Designating the Property Located at 1844 S Cherry Avenue to the Local Register of Historic Resources (Council District 3)
Body
RECOMMENDATION
The Historic Preservation Commission recommends that the City Council adopt the attached Resolution designating the property located at 1844 S Cherry Avenue to the Local Register of Historic Resources pursuant to Fresno Municipal Code SEC.12-1607 and 12-1609.
EXECUTIVE SUMMARY
The property located at 1844 S Cherry Ave., specifically the former Rosenberg Brothers and Company fruit packing warehouse and the adjacent former boiler house and machine shop, was evaluated in June 2025 and found eligible for local registration under Fresno Municipal Code Sec. 12-1607 Criteria a (1) (i), and a (1) (iii). The buildings are associated with significant events in local history, and embody distinctive architectural characteristics of the period. The Historic Preservation Commission (HPC) held a noticed public hearing on June 23, 2025, and recommended listing on the Local Register of Historic Resources. The Commission hereby forwards the nomination to the City Council for consideration.
BACKGROUND
The subject property was included in a 1978 historic resource survey and evaluated for designation to the Local Register in 1980. Designation to the local register was recommended by the HPC, but was declined by City Council due to the opposition of the property owner. Per the request of the current HPC, properties found to have been considered and rejected for designation will be re-evaluated under current conditions and criteria if an applicant is proposing substantial changes to a property. At this time, the applicant is proposing interior and exterior renovations to the warehouse building under building permit application B25-03423 (the property will continue its previously-approved use as a self-storage facility). In June 2025, an update to the DPR resource inventory form was commissioned by the City of Fresno Planning and Development Department and prepared by Karana Hattersley-Drayton.
Analysis
Fresno was the center of raisin production in California by the late 1800s. A typical packing house employed more than 2,000 people a day; Sanborn Fire Insurance maps for the late 19th and early century Fresno document numerous packing sheds and fruit processing facilities straddling both sides of the Southern Pacific rail corridor (for additional details and sources, see Exhibit A).
Rosenberg Brothers was a San Francisco-based dried fruit company founded in 1893 by Max Rosenberg, Abraham Rosenberg, and Adolph Rosenberg to pack and ship California fruit to the east. The company had packing houses in the Santa Clara, Sacramento and San Joaquin Valleys as well as in Oregon, drying and packing a variety of fruits (Exhibit A).
In 1918 Rosenberg Brothers and Company constructed a state-of-the-art 3-story packing and processing facility at 1844 S. Cherry Avenue in South Fresno. Constructed adjacent to the massive building was a two-story brick building that served as both a boiler house and machine shop. The new complex was the “largest raisin packing operation in the world in [the] 1920s.” The move south to an industrial area of Fresno coincided with their expanding empire (Exhibit A).
Both the three-story former warehouse/packing house and adjacent boiler room/machine shop building currently serve as self-storage facilities. The warehouse was evaluated by architect Bill Patnaude in June 1978 as part of the first comprehensive historic resource survey for the City. The building was presented individually to the City Council for the Local Register in 1980 and was denied, due to objections from the owner (Exhibit A).
In 2015, the warehouse building was evaluated as part of the City of Fresno's "South Van Ness Industrial District Historic Survey." It found that the Rosenberg Building was eligible for both the California and the Local Registers under Criterion 1 /i and 3/iii as "one of the best remaining examples of a fruit packing facility in the survey area" (Exhibit A). The survey was presented to the HPC and was approved by the Commission in 2015.
A comparison between the warehouse building today with the 2015 survey indicates that the building has not had any substantial changes to character defining features. The former Rosenberg Brothers and Company Dried Fruit Packers Building (as it is named on the 1918/48 Sanborn Map), retains sufficient integrity to its period of significance of 1918 to be eligible for both the California Register of Historical Resources as well as the Fresno Official Register of Historic Resources
The former boiler room/machine shop was noted in the 2015 survey but was not formerly evaluated. As part of the current revaluation, a Primary and BSO form were prepared for this building, which was constructed in 1918 to provide support services to the adjacent fruit packing warehouse. The building was subdivided to include the boiler house on the west end and machine shop and storage on the east. The entrances and large arched windows have been covered on the exterior but the original multi-pane iron sash windows are still intact, as visible on the interior. The building has exceptional integrity to its period of significance of 1918 and appears to be eligible to both the California Register and the Local Register, individually and/or as a contributor to the Rosenberg Brothers and Company fruit packing warehouse, "the largest raisin packing operation in the world in [the] 1920s” (Exhibit A).
To be considered for designation as a local Historic Resource the site must be found by the Commission and Council to meet the following criteria of FMC SEC. 12-1607. - Designation Criteria:
(1) It has been in existence more than fifty years, and it possesses aspects of integrity to convey its significance based upon location, design, setting, materials, workmanship, feeling or association, and:
(i) It is associated with events that have made a significant contribution to the broad patterns of our history; or
(ii)It is associated with the lives of persons significant in our past; or
(iii) It embodies the distinctive characteristics of a type, period or method of construction, or represents the work of a master, or possesses high artistic values; or
(iv) It has yielded or may be likely to yield, information important in prehistory or history.
(2) It has been in existence less than fifty years, it meets the criteria of subdivision (1) of subsection (a) of this section and is of exceptional importance within the appropriate historical context, local, state or national.
The property located at 1844 S Cherry Ave. was evaluated as described above and found eligible for local registration under Fresno Municipal Code Sec. 12-1607 Criteria a (1) (i), and a (1) (iii), specifically the former Rosenberg Brothers and Company fruit packing warehouse and the adjacent former boiler house and machine shop.
At the time of this report, the property owner's support of or objection to the nomination was uncertain.
FRESNO MUNICIPAL CODE FINDINGS
The warehouse located at 1844 S Cherry Ave meets the criteria a (1) (i), and a (1) (iii) for historic designation under the Fresno Municipal Code Sec. 12-1607.
ENVIRONMENTAL FINDINGS
The designation is not a project for the purposes of the California Environmental Quality Act (CEQA), as it will not result in a direct or indirect change in the environment.
LOCAL PREFERENCE
N/A
FISCAL IMPACT
There is no impact beyond the expenditure of staff time.
CONCLUSION
Staff recommends that the City Council adopt the attached Resolution designating the property located at 1844 S Cherry Avenue to the Local Register of Historic Resources pursuant to Fresno Municipal Code SEC.12-1607 and 12-1609.
ATTACHMENTS
Exhibit A - DPR Inventory Forms (1978 and 2025)
Exhibit B - Notice of Public Hearing
Exhibit C - Fresno Municipal Code Designation Criteria & Process
Exhibit D - Resolution