[Sdpg] Forestiere Underground Gardens Fresno an amazing Site

[Santa Barbara Permaculture Network]

Forestiere Underground Gardens (1906-1946)
5021 W. Shaw Avenue
Baldasare Forestiere, designer and builder
Vernacular Subterranean
http://sunfive.fresno.edu/courses/preserve/nrhp/forest.htm

Description

The Forestiere Underground Gardens is located on Shaw Avenue in north
Fresno, a
short distance east of Highway 99. It is a complex of underground caverns,
grottos, patios and garden courts encircling the underground home of Baldasare
Forestiere. The various sections are inter-connected with underground
passageways and promenades together with an auto tunnel approximately 800 feet
long that winds through the gardens. These passageways are embellished with
planters of various shapes and sizes, many with built-in recessed seats of
hardpan, mortar and cement. There are columns, arches and domes of hardpan--a
native sedimentary stone that is pervasive in the area. Some ceilings are
vaulted and carved like inverted tea cups. Others have skylights adorned with
redwood arbors and pergolas with cascading grapevines. Over his living areas,
Forestiere built skylights that were covered in the winter with glass to keep
out the rain, yet allow in natural light.

To support the great mass of earth and to give permanence to his earthen
sculptings, Forestiere used Roman arches, columns and domes. Hardpan, mortar
and cement are used not only for structural purposes, but also for textural
variety and beautification.

A wide variety of trees were planted throughout the gardens, some of them
rare.
Some of the trees are planted as deep as 22 feet below ground level. Many
citrus trees were grafted with a variety of citrus, one tree having some seven
different varieties. Varieties that Forestiere planted include Almond,
Pomegranate, Italian Pear, Bartlett Pear, Olive, Persimmon, Avocado, Loquat,
Quince, Carob, Jujube, Arbutus, Black Fig, Tangerine, Grapefruit, Orange,
Kumquat, Lemon, Date Palm and Mulberry.

A small fish pond, crossed by a foot bridge, was created in the garden court
off the kitchen and bedrooms. Also located in the gardens was an aquarium with
a circular glass bottom through which tropical fish could be observed. On
ground level there was a small lake, which has subsequently been filled in for
a parking lot.

Historical significance

The Forestiere Underground Gardens were designed and hand-sculpted by
Baldasare
Forestiere, a Sicilian immigrant. A vineyardist and horticulturalist,
Forestiere began in the early 1900s to carve and sculpt a thoroughly unique
underground retreat to escape the San Joaquin Valley's excessive heat. After
nearly forty years with hand tools and persistent effort, he succeeded in
creating a cool subterranean complex fashioned after the "visions stored in my
mind." Forestiere worked without blueprints or plans, following only his
creative instincts and aesthetic impulses. He continued expanding and
modifying
the gardens throughout his life. He died in 1946 at the age of sixty-seven.
After his death, the Underground Gardens were opened to the public as a
museum.

Adapted from the National Register of Historic Places nomination, originally
prepared by Lorraine Faulks Forestiere.

For further information regarding public tours of the Underground Gardens,
please call 559-271-0734.

http://www.agilitynut.com/sunkengardens.html
Baldasare Forestiere came to the U.S. in 1901 at the age of 22 and found work
digging the subway in Boston and then a tunnel connecting NYC and NJ. In 1908,
he went west and arrived in Fresno where he purchased 70 acres of land at a
great price without seeing it first. He thought he was buying farm land,
but it
turned out the land only had an inch or two of topsoil over hardpan ­
basically
rock-like soil which was useless for growing things. He began work as a
contractor, in charge of planting grape fields for surrounding farms. To beat
the heat, he started to digging his own underground tunnel and created a 4
room
apartment. He found fertile soil below the hardpan and, mixing it with soil
from ancient lakebeds 75 miles away, started building a garden.

He used the hardpan as a roof, cutting circular holes in it for ventilation
and
creating light and rain for the garden. By the time he died in 1946 (age of
67), after 38 years of building alone, he had constructed more than 90
underground rooms and 10 acres of patios, courts, archways and grottoes.
Engineers marvel at how this small man (5’4”), who never learned to read or
write, built this place with only a pick, shovel and wheelbarrow.

Paths meander through nearly 7 acres of underground rooms and gardens 10-25
feet below the surface. Citrus trees, some grafted to grow up to 7
varieties of
fruit, grow from pots carved in the underground chambers through holes in the
hardpan roof. Above ground you can pick fruit from the treetops. The son of a
fruit rancher, he knew about gardening and the grafting of fruit trees.
Despite
hundreds of varieties of plants, animals and insects are rarely seen. There
are
also elaborate drainage systems.

As Forestiere said, "to make something with lots of money that is easy ­
but to
make something out of nothing
 now that is something." He was also driven by
unrequited love as was Ed Leeskalnin (Coral Castle) . After the initial
building of the underground house, Forestiere went back to Italy to ask his
childhood sweetheart to come to America but she refused. He then went back to
building with a vengeance.

By 1923, when he had completed 50 rooms and an 800’ long underground roadway
for cars, Forestiere had to mortgage the property to keep up his work. But in
1931, the mortgagees foreclosed and he was forced to open his caves to the
public to raise funds. At the time of his death he was working on a ballroom
and an underground lake. He had excavated and floored the 3500 square foot
ballroom with composite stone and covered it with a large wooden roof.

The lake is a small one with a circular room only 10’ in diameter with a hole
in the roof to let in light and another hole about 4’ wide in the middle of
the
floor. Below is a small bell-shaped chamber with ledges on which to sit. The
idea was to cover the hole in the roof with a sheet of glass then fill the
room
above with water to make a shallow pond. You could then sit in the chamber
below and watch fish above (like an aquarium in the ceiling. Some people
speculate that he was building an underground resort (evidence of a possible
restaurant and parking lot), others think maybe a bomb shelter.

The current owners of the house, Forestiere’s nephew and wife, haven’t got the
money to finish the construction. Although the remaining 4½ acre site is an
historical landmark, a lawsuit has dragged on for years keeping the Gardens
closed to visitors and depriving the Forestieres of income. They have been
offered nearly $2 million, but they refuse to sell. Parts of the garden have
been destroyed because of highway expansion, as well as erosion and neglect.
The family still talks optimistically of completing about 15 rooms and
reopening the place to tourists.

UPDATE: Recently, the site has been reopened for tours and used for weddings,
business meetings, parties and small concerts.

  Forestiere Gardens
http://www.californiaheartland.org/archive/hl_405/foresti.htm

It is hard to believe that amidst Fresno’s fast food signs, beneath the hot
surface of the San Joaquin Valley is an underground paradise of lush fruit and
vegetable trees that reach through skylights from 10-12 feet below the ground.
They were the brainchild of Baldasare Forestiere.

Forestiere, an Italian immigrant, found the Central Valley heat hard to take
when he came here to farm at the turn of the century. The Gardens began as a
wine cellar in 1906 and developed into an underground retreat. Forestiere used
hand tools and kept digging until his death in 1946.

Forestiere’s family hopes to one day make his rooftop garden as beautiful as
his underground complex. These gardens are certainly a living testimony to one
man’s vision.

Visitors can tour through the labyrinth-like hideaway of Forestiere Gardens.
Tours are available on the weekends during the winter and Wednesday-Sunday
during the summer months. For more information, call (559) 271-0734.
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Santa Barbara Permaculture Network
(805) 962-2571
sbpcnet at silcom.com

www.sbpermaculture.org

"We are like trees, we must create new leaves, in new directions, in order to
grow." - Anonymous

>
> May no bomb fall on your head
> or on your child's head or on your enemy's head
> or on his child's head
> or on the snail
> in his garden.