Built in 1922, Downtown Fresno's Bekins building is up for sale. Photo by Edward Smith

Driving along Highway 41, travelers see what Joe Jacobsen calls “the largest billboard in Fresno.” The manager for the moving and storage company has worked in Downtown Fresno’s Bekins building since the ‘60s, witnessing a transforming cityscape.

On its 100th birthday, the seven-story building at 301 Van Ness Ave. will have its first change-of-use in a century as the owner seeks to sell and relocate.

The so-called Bekins “castle” is one of eight buildings the pioneering moving and storage family built throughout the early part of the 20th century across California and the U.S.

 

Bekins Van Lines was founded in 1891 in Iowa, according to a 1989 Los Angeles Times article, moving west to Los Angeles in 1895. Milo Bekins, son of one of the Dutch immigrant founders who became chairman in 1927, reportedly believed “moving is the American way.”

He was right. The U.S. moving and self-storage industry is now worth an estimated $46 billion combined.

Over the years, the Bekins warehouses in Burlingame, Oakland and Los Angeles all found different uses. Fresno was the last holdout.

Touring the structure, one instantly finds its legacy very much intact. Even after nearly a century of use, the solid concrete floors still don’t have cracks, said Ethan Smith, broker with Newmark Pearson Commercial, who is listing the building.

The passenger elevator hasn’t changed over the years. The rider still needs to pull the gate shut before it can go up to another floor. It still passes inspection every year, Jacobsen said. The exposed mechanics on the freight elevator offer a view of early-1900s engineering — and it still hauls furniture, pianos and more to this day.

 

Smith envisions housing, open creative space or other uses could occupy the 60,000 square-foot building.

Even though the concrete walls and floors would complicate adapting the use, Smith says someone with the know-how could get it done. In the ‘40s, the Bekins family added an approximately 12,000 square-foot loading dock and another 3,000 square-foot dock.

The building is listed for $3 million. Owner Brad Metzner — who purchased the building from the Bekins family in 1996 —  plans to move on after the building is sold.

Since 1922, the building has been used for storage and as a transfer station. In the bottom floor vault, people’s fur coats would be stored for the summer. The concrete walls kept the space cool and dry, without modern climate controls other fur storage has now.

“That was as much as you were going to get in those days,” Jacobsen said.

In addition to housing furniture, a railroad spur would bring in bulk goods from dog food to flour to tractor tire additives. Workers would load up trucks and material would go to stores.

Housing surrounded the building before the new Highway 41 went up, said Jacobsen.

 

When a storage space went unpaid for a number of years, its contents would go up for auction.

Jacobsen said chairs would be set up on Monterey Street for people to bid. He’s seen people buy units with jars of silver dollars, a baseball signed by Babe Ruth and one person bought a unit that contained a solitary pair of shoes.

“It brought people from everywhere,” Jacobsen said.

Now, the company focuses on storage and office relocations.

If the building can find a buyer, it — like the other landmarks in Downtown Fresno’s skyline — will evolve as its neighbors have.