The Ghost Stories of Fresno’s Fig Garden Swim & Racquet Club

The Fig Garden Swim & Racquet Club has been part of Fresno's landscape for generations. Located in the Fig Garden neighborhood, the club continues to operate today, but the building has a history that goes beyond swimming pools, tennis courts and club activities.

There have been stories of something else inside. 

In July 1994, The Fresno Bee published an article documenting reports of strange activity at the Fig Garden Swim & Racquet Club. More than three decades later, those accounts are worth bringing back into the light.

The stories surrounding the club centered on its clubhouse, which was described by The Fresno Bee as an 82-year-old building at the time. The structure had originally been built as the DeVaux family home in 1912.

Kathy Broderick had recently become the club's director when she began hearing about the building's reputation. She said she had not known about the stories before she was hired.

According to the people interviewed by the newspaper, previous managers had reported unexplained sounds and other unusual experiences inside the clubhouse.

One of the stories involved a pool table located in what had once been an upstairs bedroom.

A former manager named Toby Cook was reportedly working late one night when she suddenly heard the sound of pool balls breaking upstairs. She then heard footsteps moving around the table.

Cook apparently decided not to investigate.

The story became one of Broderick's favorites. She also said she did not find the idea of encountering a ghost particularly frightening.

“If I saw a ghost, I think it would be kind of cool,” she told the newspaper.

Linda Clague, Broderick's predecessor as club director, never claimed to have actually seen an apparition. She did, however, describe two experiences that she considered unusual.

During one incident, a new air conditioner had been installed in an area where an old door had once been.

Clague was in the room next to the air conditioner when she suddenly felt something hit her in the back.

She felt that the air conditioner had caused it. 

Even so, the experience gave her the distinct impression that something might have been trying to get her attention.

“It felt like the ghost was trying to get my attention,” Clague said.

Her second experience happened while the clubhouse was being painted.

The painter working on the building reportedly told Clague that he felt uncomfortable in one particular upstairs room. It was the room containing the pool table.

He said he felt a presence there.

Later that day, Clague and the painter were walking upstairs toward the bedroom.

As they approached the room, something strange happened.

The windows had been left open. According to Clague, the windows suddenly rose about two inches and slammed shut almost simultaneously.

Clague also knew of someone who claimed to have actually seen the ghost.

The apparition reportedly appeared on the landing of the staircase.

Rather than running away, the witness supposedly asked it something along the lines of, “Are you a friendly ghost?”

Then she simply walked past it.

By 1994, stories like these had apparently become part of the club's folklore.

Clague told The Fresno Bee that few of the people working there questioned the stories.

“It is just generally accepted that the house is haunted,” she said.

Old newspaper archives are filled with stories like this. Many have never made their way onto the modern internet. They are pieces of Fresno's weird history sitting quietly in old editions of the newspaper, waiting to be found again.

This is one of them.

Whether the Fig Garden clubhouse is haunted is something each person can decide for themselves. What we do know is that in 1994, people who worked there were openly talking about strange experiences inside the building, and *The Fresno Bee* considered those stories interesting enough to put them on the page.

More than 30 years later, the stories are still worth remembering.

**Source:** Chris Branam, “BOO! Tales abound of spiritual sightings at racket club and other city areas,” *The Fresno Bee*, July 21, 1994, Northwest Neighbors section, Page 3.

Special thanks.

This story was brought to my attention on TikTok by Leggymom. She has numerous posts about Fresno's history and when she found this, knew I would be interested. So go check out her profile. And remember, if you have a story I'd love to hear about it.


                        Image of the scan of the original Fresno Bee article.