Adventure 003, Site 013 – Physicians Building

Sherri and Physicians Building

Capture California, the Game-2013

Adventure: 003, Site 013 – Physicians Building

National Registry ID: 1978000664

Local Registry ID: 4

Team: YOLT

Date:  June 14, 2013

Location:

Latitude: 36°44′26″N

Longitude: 119°47′06″W

Address: 2607 Fresno, Fresno, CA

Description:

Date Built: 1926

Architect: Charles E. Butner

After such an impressive history, it is a reminder to us all that the current greatness of a place will diminish, be unappreciated and not be remembered by succeeding generations. There was no plaque on this site.

The Physcians Building

This building, which fuses elements of the Italian and Spanish Revival architectural styles, was designed by Charles E. Butner for six Fresno physicians and surgeons. It was the first building in the central San Joaquin Valley expressly designed for medical offices and laboratories. The practitioners in the Physicians Building were involved in a variety of professional specialties, including general surgery, pediatrics, obstetrics, and internal medicine. As a group and individually, the physicians in this building made numerous distinguished contributions to the growing city of Fresno. Among these achievements were Clinton Collins' service as County Physician from 1915 to 1920, Angus B. Cowan's position as both County Coroner and the leader of a community effort that secured accreditation for the county hospital by the American Medical Association and the American College of Surgeons in 1921, and Chester Vanderburgh's appointment as chief of the surgical staff at Fresno General Hospital.

At the time of its design and construction in 1926, the Physicians Building consisted of some twenty-eight rooms, grouped into separate office units that opened out onto an interior court. An octagonal fountain and fish pond, some eight feet across and built of beige-colored stone, provided a bench surface as well as atmospheric character for the central axis of the medical building. Rising some eighteen feet above a floor surface of highly-polished serpentine-green linoleum tile, a superbly detailed skylight allowed natural light to filter into this large court space through individually-set panes of pebbled glass installed below a clerestory roof. The woodwork that made up the ceiling's structural element, built of some thirteen inches of milled and layered double curves, was painted off-white. Eight quarter columns with simple striped and banded crests at capital height, as well as four corner columns, completed the formal symmetry of this elegant medical reception area.

Much of the interior has been lost in the 1960's when the fountain was removed and the ceiling covered over with acoustic tile. Still from the exterior, it is a building which beauty.



References:

• Guide to Historic Fresno
• Noehill
  

Overall Landmark References:

• David Schmitt's California State Historical Landmark (Schmitt)
• Wikipedia: California's National Landmarks (WCNL)
• State of California's California Historical Landmarks (CHL)
• Wikipedia: California State Landmarks (WCSL)
• State of California Historical Resources (CHR)
• National Registry of Historical Places (NRHP)