The Fisher Mansion

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The Fisher Mansion

• Truly One of Americas Finest Homes
• Detroit, MI
• 22,000 Sq. ft 4 acres of gardens

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Lawrence P. Fisher (1888-1961)

• One of 7 bros.
• Born in Norwalk, OH
• Fisher Body Division of GM
• President of Cadillac
• Bachelor until 69. Married Dolly Roach in 1957,
  died 4 years later.

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Architect Style

• Architect C. Howard Crane
• Popular Theater Architect
• Fisher Theater
• Interior Designer Francis J. Geck
• Architectural style Embellished Mediterranean
  Revival
• Spanish Mission exterior.
• Interior called Hollywood Vintage, a blend of
  Art Deco and various World styles, basically,
  anything goes
• Style similar to mansions being built in Florida
  California

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Original Garden Plan and Landscape Design by
Charles S. LeSure (1928)
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Construction

• Workers brought from Europe
• Worked round the clock, lived on-site
• Cost 2,000,000 (Today would be 25,000,000)
• 140 oz. silver 75 oz. of gold and gold leaf
  used in Mansion

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Main Foyer

• Orange sculpted face of Neptune, god of the sea
  at entrance.
• During parties, Champagne would flow from his
  mouth
• Ceiling handcarved Spanish Oak, replica of one
  found in Francos Palace in Spain
• Took 2 years to complete

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Upstairs Foyer

• Venetian stained glass windows
• Ceiling done in Spanish style with gold leaf
• Baroque archway opening the west wall
• Two Corinthian columns at doorway
• Serves as hub for other rooms

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Dining Room

• Walnut walls with diamond-shaped burled walnut
  motif.
• Pillars from a fifteenth century German Castle.
• Solomonicas after the syle of pillars found in
  the palace of King Solomon in ancient Jerusalem
• Floors and walls contain very expensive yellow
  Italian onyx marble.
• Mary Stantton Pewabic tiles behind water fountain
• Now in use as a restaurant called Govindas

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Library

• Fishers favorite room
• Floor 2.5 feet thick oak wood
• Constructed with butterfly joints and pegs no
  nails, will not creak (1)
• Hand tooled Spanish leather wall covering with
  red and blue gold leaf
• Fireplace marble from extinct quarry in Italy.
  Made with fossils
• Door in corner leads underground tunnel which
  goes to a domed, heated, indoor swimming pool.

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Living Room

• Mostly French influence, with leaded glass
  paintings from a French chateau
• Ceiling done in manner of Swiss chalet
• Sandstone fireplace, with figures of angels with
  lions claws on each side.
• Francis Geck doors.
• Figure sculpted on each is Leda, the mistress of
  Zeus, riding a sea monster. The Living Room side
  is done in Oak, the Music-Room side is Walnut

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Music Room

• Dancing and singing female figures along the
  edges of the ceiling
• Ceiling done in classical Japanese style
• French embroidered silk wall
• Floor is walnut and black walnut parquet
• Paneling along base of walls of African zebra
  wood

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Grand Ballroom

• Overall effect is that of open-air Spanish
  courtyard
• Francis Geck framed mirrors
• Red and gray American marble
• Now serves as temple room

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Mrs. Fishers Suite

• Done in French style from era of King Louis XVI
• Hand painted canvas panels by William Wright.
• Cameos at the top of each panel are pictures of
  Fishers girlfriends
• Ceiling borders have leafing of mixed gold and
  silver

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Master Bedroom

• Ceiling Mediterranean style from Southern France
• Floor is East Indian rosewood
• Bathroom walls are mostly Pewabic Tiles from the
  American Tile Company
• No two tiles are alike
• Created by dropping chemicals in a random
  pattern on tiles before firing
• Gold in floor tiles Silver in blue wall tiles
• The blue color is the same as the first Cadillac
  that rolled of the assembly line
• 7 head shower

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Games Room

• Two regulation size-bowling alleys downstairs
• Atmosphere of a medieval crypt beneath a castle
• Plaster arches and oak beams across ceiling
• Three diamond-paneled French doors at back end,
  open to terrace by canal
• Today used as gift store

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Domed Swimming Pool
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After Fisher

• In January 1976, Alfred Brush Ford
  (great-grandson of Henry Ford) and Elisabeth
  Reuther (daughter of Walter Reuther) purchased
  the Mansion for 300,000 then donated it to their
  spiritual teacher. His Divine Grace A.C.
  Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada, founder-acarya of
  the International Society for Krishna
  Consciousness. The mansion was then renovated and
  transformed into a temple and cultural center,
  which is its current use today.

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The Temple
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