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The Harvard Home


522 E. Harvard Ave.

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This house was built in 1933 for the MacGillivray family and designed by Taylor-Wheeler, who were prominent architects in the area and responsible for the design of many homes in the Fresno High area. In fact, this home falls within the proposed Terrace-Gardens historic district, which was originally proposed in the 1991 tower specific plan to protect the large population of Taylor-Wheeler designed homes in the immediate area. The house was originally a 2 bed 1 bath but has been expanded to a 3 bed 2.5 bath by previous owners in the late 1980s. The same owners also added 6 skylights throughout the original part of the home to provide more natural light. Some of the other former owners completed energy efficiency upgrades to the home including new windows throughout. Even with several large updates over the years, the house has maintained most of its original character.

Living room and dining room

The original part of the house maintains its original hard wood floors, which were refinished about 10 years ago. A previous owner was a collector of French antiques and installed the antique French mirror over the mantle.  You’ll also notice the original built ins and sconces in the dining room. The current owners have been in the home for three years and are slowly adding their own touch to the house. They recently painted the living and dining rooms and plan to paint other rooms in the house in the near future. The current owners are fans of music and both play several instruments. One of the owners even played the cello in the Fresno State orchestra.

Guest room

This room is one of the two original bedrooms in the house and overlooks the English style “secret garden” in the back yard. The garden has gone dormant for the winter, but in the spring will be full of roses, foxgloves, and jasmine. Much of the furniture in this room was left to the owners by the previous owner who moved overseas and was unable to take both the furniture and her dogs. She picked the dogs! The one piece of furniture not left by the previous owner is the antique Chinese chest at the foot of the bed. This was purchased by one of the owner’s great-grandparents during a trip to China in the 1900s. This room still has its original doors with original hardware, including the skeleton key for all original doors in the house. The closet also has original built in dressers. The other original bedroom also has a built-in dresser in the closet. That room is being used as an office for one of the owners. You’ll also notice one of the added skylights near the door which provides a significant amount of light during the morning and early afternoon. In fact, it’s so effective that for the first few months of living in this house, one of the owners would instinctively reach for the light switch when leaving the room to try to turn it off.

Bathroom

The bathroom has all original pink and blue tile and the original cast iron bathtub. This is the only original bathroom in the house and was also the back of the house before the extension was added. The original bathroom window was turned into a shelf as a result, but you can still get a good idea of the window that was originally there. A skylight was added by a previous owner to make up for the loss of natural light.

Kitchen

The kitchen was last renovated by the previous owners approximately 30 years ago and the current owners hope to do their own renovation within the next year. Originally there was a breakfast nook with a window where the pantry is now located. You can just about see where the old window well was through the shelves. The bottom shelf was actually the bench to the breakfast nook. The area where the kitchen table is located used to be a separate mudroom, but the deciding wall was removed by previous owners to expand the kitchen. The arch leading from the kitchen to the back room is where the original back door was. You can get a good sense for how thick the walls for the original house are when you walk through the arch.

Back room/family room/extension

This part of the house was added in the late 80s by a previous owner who was a contractor. They also added a second floor to this part of the house which has a large primary bedroom, walk in closet, and full bathroom. Apparently they had been planning to add a spiral staircase to the second floor, but ended up choosing a more standard staircase. They also added a half bath and laundry room downstairs. The house also has a small unfinished basement that was originally accessible cellar doors in the backyard, but the expansion built over the original entrance. There is now a trap door with a ladder leading down to the original stairs to the basement in the laundry room. From the basement, you can actually see the sidewalk leading from the original back door and some of the lawn that was there as well! The grass is VERY dead, but still there! Because the basement is hard to access, the current owners use it for storage. The current owners use this space as a family room and office space.

Back yard/apartment

The backyard was one of the spaces the owners were the most excited about when they first saw the house. There are two mature pecan trees and two large almond trees which the owners believe were planted not long after the house was built. The current owners have added a lot of their own plants to fill in the gardens. There is also the secret garden around the side of the house that you have to walk through a vine covered gate to access. The current owners love hosting friends and family in the back yard during good weather.

Looking towards the garage, you may have noticed the garage door and the driveway tile match! People frequently think that the garage door is actually tiled, but if you look closely, it’s actually a standard aluminum garage door with a really good mural on it! One of the previous owners was an artist who used the garage as a studio and also painted the garage door. You may have also noticed there is a second floor on the garage. It’s a 400 square foot apartment with a full bathroom, kitchenette, living room, and bedroom. The owners aren’t sure exactly how old the apartment space is, but they did find an ad in the Fresno Bee from 1960 advertising the space for rent as a “guest house in northwest Fresno.”