Gundelfinger Home

Gundelfinger Home

1020 T Street.

 This home was built in 1910 for Henry Gundelfinger, a prominent business and civic leader in Fresno for many years. He was born in Germany.  He was a leader in the power companies around Fresno. But not only Mr Gundelfinger was prominent in the community, so were the women. There were at least three Gundelfinger families \around Fresno. Lulu Gundelfinger was a charter member of the Fresno AAUW and worked with Los Feliz Guild of Valley Children’s Hospital. Minnie G set up a fund to aide in maternity and confinement cases There is currently A Minnie G fund with the Fresno Regional Foundation for unwed mothers. Henry’s wife, Palmyre was a pianist and founded the Fresno Music Club which brought  concert artists to Fresno from all other the countyr.
In the 1960’s Bill Phillips bought this property with the idea of tearing it down for mortuary parking. He left on a business trip for a week. His wife Esther, saw the inside of the house and decided it needed saving. While he was gone, she restored a room, the Solarium. When he came back, he was still determined to tear it down, until he was convinced to have tea in it. He allowed her to restore one more room. But by that time, he was sold on keeping the house. Esther proceeded to restore the rest of the house.
 The home possesses elements of both the Prairie and Colonial Revival styles. The strong horizontal lines, hipped roof with wide overhanging eaves, and the "ribbons" of repeated vertical windows that create the illusion of single large horizontal windows are all typical Prairie design elements. The porch pillars, however, are much more typical of Colonial Revival.