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Underground Gardens Tour (big pix)

CaddmannQ

.50 BMG
I have lived hereabouts for 45 years, but in that time I have never been to the underground gardens in Fresno. Baldasare Forestiere Moved here in 1907 to grow trees, and soon he started digging a well, then, because the only cool place in Fresno before A/C was in a well, he started digging a house underground.

100 years later much of the 10 acres of rooms and tunnels has been destroyed, but over 2 acres remains as a historical site.
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What you see from the street is mostly trees and grapes and shrubbery, what you see underground is more trees and grapes and shrubbery.
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Most of this is dug in hardpan, which is nearly as solid as sandstone, and quite thick in places.
He used water and hand tools and a wheelbarrow to excavate down to 20'+ some places, including a drain pit here and there, and an underground fishpond with a glass floor. You could sleep below the fish and look up. Unfortunately, many of my photos were too dark to see.

The place is reinforced in many places with scrap steel and old tractor parts. There is concrete mortar and rough stones of hardpan arranged into pilasters and columns and arches throughout.

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There are a number of skylights which are covered with glass in the winter. In many places the trees grow up through the roof.
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This was to eventually be an underground resort when finished, but WW2 came about and disrupted plans. Baldasare died from pneumonia in 1946, and the place disintegrated for many years, being inherited by subsequent family members. Most of the original land was sold, and the ground filled in and built over.

At one point he built a long tree-lined driveway which wound down underground to the entrance of the underground ball room. Some of this tunnel has collapsed. The ball room has a terrazo floor, wood trusses and a concrete roof.
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More to come . . .
 
Originally there was no drive, but the entry stairs were added about the same time.
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The original well. Later there was an engine-powered pump.
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By the time of this photo, Baldasare had been digging about 20 years . . .
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These vines are 100+ years old, & still deliver grapes. They grow into and out of walls.
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Trees still produce several types of fruit.
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All the comforts of home . . .
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Bathtub is over the fish pond.

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An elevated bed, 20 feet below ground.
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From 1907 to 1946, the digging never stopped. Sometimes others were enlisted to help, but the war put the dream to an end.

RIP, Ancient Sandhog Baldasare!
 
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