Historic American home has English accent

VISALIA, Calif. -- Irma Cisneros is fond of older homes. She grew up in one.

When she walked her children to school in Visalia in the early 1980s, she passed an 1870s Queen Anne home and always looked at it with envy. Her husband, George, wasn't into those kinds of homes.

"I was raised in poverty, so any common house was fine," George Cisneros, 60, says.

But when his wife found out the house was for sale, the couple visited it. "When he touched the doorknob, he knew it was ours," Irma Cisneros, 58, says.

According to a revised 1992 guide titled "Tour the Historic Homes of Visalia" by Visalia Heritage and the Historic Preservation Advisory Committee, the Cisneroses' home was built by Mary C. Harrell.

The home, however, often is associated with the E.O. Miller family, which remodeled it in 1882. "Miller was a prominent attorney, registrar of the U.S. Land Office and a state senator," according to the guide.

"Within a few blocks of this area, we have some of our best historic homes," says Brandon Smith, Visalia's senior city planner and staff representative for the advisory committee.

The home showcases several classic details of the Queen Anne style, including a wraparound front porch as well as bay and stained-glass windows.

The two-story, nearly 4,000-square-foot house includes an attic, basement, five bedrooms and two bathrooms.

It has oak floors, a hand-rubbed English walnut staircase and ceilings that reach as high as 15 feet in some rooms and 12 feet in others.

An interesting fact is that the previous owner had an organ in the house, the Cisneroses say. Organ pipes between 2 and 30 feet long were placed in a room that the couple now uses for crafts. The room "was part of the porch, and they had sealed off part of the porch to hold the pipes," Irma Cisneros said.

Since moving into the house in 1982, the couple has been slowly restoring the home.

"We love it," she says of the house. "They're going to carry us out feet first."