Nestled amongst orange bushes in considered one of Fresno’s most long-established residential neighborhoods is 4549 North Van Ness Blvd. For the reason that early Seventies, it’s been the house of former U.S. Poet Laureate and Pulitzer Prize-winning creator Philip Levine and his household. Now, this piece of literary historical past is on the market, asking $500,000.
The house is a three-bedroom, two-bathroom bungalow spanning 1,599 sq. toes. Constructed within the Twenties, it’s one of many unique houses in Previous Fig Backyard and enjoys the gracious property strains that mark Fresno’s early single-family houses. The greater than 3/4-acre lot options lawns, gardens and citrus bushes. These bushes bore regionally well-known oranges throughout Philip Levine and his spouse France Levine’s tenancy.
“Our mom was at all times making a gift of these oranges,” son Ted Levine advised SFGATE. “She would put them within the mailbox for the mail service.”
Phillip and Frances lived within the dwelling within the heyday of Philip Levine’s literary prowess. Shortly after finishing a Jones Fellowship at Stanford College, Levine started instructing on the Fresno State College, the place he would stay till 1992, although he additionally taught at UC Berkeley, in addition to Columbia, Princeton, New York College, Brown and Tufts. Levine served on the Board of Chancellors of the Academy of American Poets from 2000 to 2006 and was appointed to a two-year time period as U.S. poet laureate in 2011. His work received extensive acclaim all through his lifetime, together with the Nationwide Guide Award for Poetry in 1980 and 1991 and the Pulitzer Prize for Poetry in 1995.
Frances Levine, referred to as Franny to those that knew her effectively, was “in her personal proper, a painter and sketchbook artist, a gardener, a chef and cookbook author, and a neighborhood volunteer,” in accordance with her obituary, in addition to an amazing supporter of and contributor to Fresno State. Philip Levine died in 2015, and Frances Levine died this previous June.
It could appear far afield to examine a Fresno property, even one which housed such literary historical past, however contemplate this: In March of 2021, the Los Angeles Occasions introduced that the nation’s hottest market was Fresno, California. In July 2022, Fresno dwelling costs have been up 11.9% in contrast with 2021, promoting for a median value of $375,000.
Because the median dwelling value in San Francisco creeps towards $2 million, you should buy a three-bedroom dwelling, the place as soon as Philip Levine wrote award-winning poetry from his examine, on almost an acre of landscaped property, and you are able to do it for $500,000.