Fresno Growing Up
country homes for faculty members within a reasonable proximity of the new campus.” A few months later, in June, the state public works board chose the Blackstone Avenue site over the eastern alternative, which was deemed a hazard to children who would be attending an elementary school on the new campus. The Blackstone site consisted almost entirely of a fig orchard with a few buildings belonging to the Markarian family, but it was—unlike the other property—already equipped with electric lines and sewer mains. All that needed to be done was to condemn the property so it could be seized through eminent domain. Even as the site was chosen, wheels were already turning to set the nascent plan in motion. Frank Thomas, the retiring college president, said construction might get under way before the end of the year. A general building plan was already in place, calling for at least 16 structures to be built. “It already has been determined that the new campus will face either west or south,” he added, “but the plan will have to be completed in detail to fit the specific site.” Thomas added that he hoped the housing shortage would be addressed quickly. The former army barracks housing many students from outside the city had never been intended as a permanent solution, he said. “My own opinion is that the dormitories ought to be among the earliest buildings on the campus. This is the key to a marked growth in the enrollment of the college. Out-of-town stuThe Thomas Administration Building, one of the first built on the new Fresno State campus at Shaw and Cedar, was named for Frank W. Thomas, who served as president of the university during the 1940s.
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dents are frustrated now because there is no place for them to live.” It all must have seemed very exciting at the time, but it didn’t work out quite the way anyone thought it would. Plans for the new campus were proceeding nicely … until they collided head-on with another proposal that had been building momentum over the postwar years: the idea that Fresno State should have a full-fledged school of agriculture. Of course, it made sense. Ag was at the core of Fresno’s iden-
tity, and what better place to study it than in one of the nation’s most productive farming regions? The whole idea got started back before the war, when some dairymen donated 26 heifers to the Fresno State College Agriculture Club. Unfortunately, the club didn’t have anywhere to put them. So a committee was formed to raise money that would be used to purchase farmland within ten miles of the college campus. By the time the war was over, the committee had racked up $500,000 toward its goal, along with more cows to join the