Uniquely is a Fresno Bee series that covers the moments, landmarks and personalities that define what makes living in the Fresno area so special.
From the street, the Elia Home is a sole survivor, a visual reminder of a neighborhood that used to exist on Van Ness Avenue between Highway 41 and downtown Fresno.
“The only house that’s remaining on this block is right here,” says owner Phillip Kliewer, standing under the shade of a large tree out back. “All of this was residential neighborhoods.”
Now the white, two-story house sits between empty dirt lots, next to a gas station and across the street from an auto detail shop. Behind the home, you can see the DoubleTree Hotel and the Fresno Convention Center.
The Brewery District is off in the other direction; close, if not quite within line of sight.
Kliewer and several longtime friends bought the house in 2017 and set forth on a rehab project to turn the home into a neighborhood bar called Moses McQueen’s.
It’s what those in the revitalization scene call “adaptive reuse.”