Tag: Bullard

Memory Map: Palm & Bullard

The Fresnan 2 Comments
img_3453 Memory Map: Palm & Bullard
Palm & Bullard nerdy ‘memory map’

As I have noted in the past we have some good groups in town keeping old Fresno pictures and memories alive. I would like to add a nerdass entry with my memory maps – hand drawn maps of an area of Fresno with memories of things that once were.

Today we are at Palm & Bullard.

NW Corner

cc4e53b4-3772-4ea2-a2d0-c6798f36e178 Memory Map: Palm & Bullard
Opus 1 hasn’t changed a bunch
  • Home of the Opus 1 shopping center. It’s always been there since I have been alive.
  • Outside of a few shops changing to something else, it’s the same.
  • There used to be a cool little record shop. It was around at the tail-end of the 80s and maybe at the beginning of the 90s. Now would be a great time for it it be there again. I believe it was in the spot that the Grape Tray is in.

SW Corner

img_3459 Memory Map: Palm & Bullard
This in not the actual one but it’s damn close
  • At one time a nice little Foodland Market. Then a Walgreens. Now a yarn place of some kind. Has a neat little green space next to it where Bullard kids would go have their fights after school.
  • Foster’s is still there and thankfully hasn’t changed… like, AT ALL.
  • There once was one of the Fotomat places that looked like the one pictured above.

NE Corner

4f9756b2-03de-4201-b9db-778647a194ca Memory Map: Palm & Bullard
As it is today and stuff
  • Old Save Mart location. Still empty. Seems like it will be empty forever. My Grandmother lived in the apartments behind the shopping center and we got to bring the carts home when shopping – for some reason I thought that was cool.
  • There used to be a Sierra Nut House. Now there is a car wash.
  • Bullard Village Drugs was the jam before all the Walgreens and CVS style places took over. Good magazine section and a good Pharmacist.
  • Bullard Liquor is now nothing.
  • The dry cleaner is still there and hasn’t changed. ?
  • Mama Mia’s is thankfully still there – home of my favorite gnocchi in town.

SE Corner

d79250bf-6b43-44d7-9405-310165614fbb Memory Map: Palm & Bullard
  • 7-11 has always been there. Not a whole lot has changed. Although when I was a kid there was a little video game room where the Slurpee machince is now. I dropped many quarters into those.
  • There was a little one of those Fresno PD phones on the side of 7-11 (maybe it is still there). Ironically, the parking lot is where Bullard kids would go to find out where the “illegal” parties were at.
  • The 76 station is now one of those dinosaur gas stations.??

Feel free to share any history or stories you have about the area, in the comments.

I have another memory map post about Blackstone & Shaw too.

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Where Is The Fig Garden Area Of Fresno?

The Fresnan 3 Comments
img_2857 Where Is The Fig Garden Area Of Fresno?
Fig Garden is where exactly?

I have been wanting to do a series of posts about the areas and districts of Fresno for probably 14 years now. It’s about time I get started.

I’ll start with my area: Fig Garden/Bullard/NW Fresno.

I live near Bullard High so I often refer to it (to those that ask) as the “Bullard Area.”

Am I in Fig Garden? Yes. Am I in NW Fresno? Yes. But within those two, I am in Bullard. Hey, Instagram recognizes it in their location option, so why not?

7648f4b6-d0a4-4c66-bc78-872467ba0c6b Where Is The Fig Garden Area Of Fresno?

But who the hell am I to say? So I put it out there to Fresno Twitter:

Obviously in NW Fresno. Maybe in Bullard. Definitely in (with Fresno Twitter’s backing) Fig Garden.

img_2867 Where Is The Fig Garden Area Of Fresno?

Me too. I never say Fig Garden either, as accurate as it may be.

Where Does Fig Garden End?

Well, to the East is easy: Blackstone. To the South: Shaw. To the North: the SJR. But where is the Western border?

Ok so things start becoming just NW Fresno at some point. But the border is?

My first thought is Marks. But I have seen some maps that have Fig Garden centered at Bullard and Valentine. So we should pick something different.

The Loop. The FIG GARDEN loop. You live East of The Loop (Fig Garden Drive to Shaw), you are Fig Garden. West? You are another thing. Then use Brawley up to Locust as a border to the North.

There we are. Fig Garden broadly defined. Maybe I will start saying I live in Fig Garden now?

I still want to work on the little districts within NW Fresno and then build out the rest of Fresno. But we have a start here.