Forestiere Underground Gardens located at 5021 W. Shaw Avenue in Fresno, California are an unusual manmade creation built by Baldasare Forestiere, an immigrant from Sicily over a period of 40 years from 1906 to until his death in1946. The gardens, while subterranean, do have many skylights and catchbasins for water. There are a wide variety of hybrids and grafted trees, and the underground temperature helps prevent against frost. It is still operated by members of the Forestiere family. Fresno is the county seat of Fresno County, California. ... Sicily (Sicilia in Italian) is an autonomous region of Italy and the largest island in the Mediterranean Sea, with an area of 25,700 sq. ... 1906 was a common year starting on Monday (see link for calendar). ... 1946 was a common year starting on Tuesday. ...
Baldasare Forestiere came to the U.S. in 1901 at the age of 22 and found work digging the subway in Boston and then a tunnel connecting NYC and NJ.
As Forestiere said, "to make something with lots of money that is easy – but to make something out of nothing… now that is something." He was also driven by unrequited love as was Ed Leeskalnin (Coral Castle).
After the initial building of the underground house, Forestiere went back to Italy to ask his childhood sweetheart to come to America but she refused.
There is a sanctuary underground in California, a place where one can escape the sizzling summer heat and the sounds of a noisy world passing by.
Forestiere imagined an underground restaurant and began to dig an auto tunnel approximately 800 feet long, with enough room for two Model T’s to park side-by-side.
The bride he had chosen from his homeland could not bear to live in the underground palace that he built for her and she returned to Italy, leaving him to his pick and his shovels and his buckets of dirt.
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