Images from Fresno’s Old Armenian Town

Two photographs taken at the funeral of General Antranik Ozanian in Fresno on August 31, 1927. The fabled fedayee and military commander was a resident of Fresno from 1922 until his death. His remains were moved to Paris the following year and eventually to the military cemetery Yerbalur in Yerevan, Armenia in 2000. The photos were taken by Sam (Harootiunian) Harrison and donated to the Archives of the Armenian Studies Program, Fresno State.

Photo of the 1919 visit to Fresno by Hovhannes Kachaznouni, Prime Minister of the first Armenian Republic. The image was reproduced on the front page of the May 28, 1971 issue of Asbarez, when the newspaper was still published in Fresno. (Photo courtesy of the Aghavni Kazarian Family, Archives of the Armenian Studies Program, Fresno State.)

Photo of several Armenian youth posing before the Asbarez newspaper office at 2229 Ventura Avenue, circa 1930s. (Photo courtesy of the Armenian Studies Program, Fresno State).

Built in 1900, the first church that housed the Holy Trinity Armenian Apostolic Church was destroyed by fire in 1913; the existing red-brick church was completed in December 1914 (Bulbulian 2001:91-92). (Photo Courtesy of Vaugh Vartanian, Archives of the Armenian Studies Program, Fresno State.)

Among the first Armenians to settle in Fresno in the early 1880s were Protestants, specifically of the Congregational Church. Established in 1901, the Pilgrim Armenian Congregational Church had several locations before moving into its current home on First Street in 1961 (Bulbulian 2001:87-89). At the time of the photo (1912), the church was located at Van Ness Avenue and Inyo Street. (Photo courtesy of the Armenian Studies Program, Fresno State.)

Photo of the Emerson Grammar School Class of 1915. Located at the intersection of Van Ness and Santa Clara avenues in the heart of Old Armenian Town, the school provided primary education to numerous immigrant and first generation Fresno Armenians. (Photo from the Vahan Chagerian Daron Collection, donated by the Aghavni Kazarian Family to the Armenian Studies Program, Fresno State.)

Photo of the parade float of the Armenian-American Citizens Club taken on November 11, 1932. Founded in 1931, the organization later became known as the Armenian-American Citizens League. (Photo courtesy of the Aghavni Kazarian Family, Armenian Studies Program, Fresno State.)

This photo, taken sometime in the 1890s, appeared in the April 28, 1968 issue of the Fresno Bee. The newspaper’s caption read: “FIG PACKING—Gas lights illuminated the Seropian Packing Company plant during the fig packing season in the 1890s. The plant was on G Street (near Tulare Street). It employed mostly women. Mrs. Nartoohi Isakoolian of 3525 Ventura Avenue is among the women shown in the picture submitted by Dorothy Sergius of 3205 Balch Ave. Seth Davidian was the plant foreman…” (Photo Courtesy of the Armenian Studies Program, Fresno State).