The Fisher Mansion
“Truly One of America’s Finest Homes”
Detroit, MI
22,000 Sq. ft
4 acres of gardens
Lawrence P. Fisher (1888-1961)
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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.
Architect & Style
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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”
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– Style similar to mansions being built in Florida & California
Original Garden Plan and Landscape Design
by Charles S. LeSure (1928)
Construction
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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
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Orange sculpted face of
Neptune, god of the sea
at entrance.
– During parties, Champagne
would flow from his mouth
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Ceiling: handcarved
Spanish Oak, replica of
one found in Franco’s
Palace in Spain
– Took 2 years to complete
Upstairs Foyer
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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
Dining Room
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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”
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Floors and walls contain very expensive yellow Italian onyx marble.
Mary Stantton Pewabic tiles behind water fountain
Now in use as a restaurant called “Govinda’s”
Library
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Fisher’s favorite room
Floor 2.5 feet thick oak wood
– Constructed with butterfly
joints and pegs – “no nails,
will not creak” (1)
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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.
Living Room
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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 lion’s
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
Music Room
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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
Grand Ballroom
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Overall effect is that of openair Spanish courtyard
Francis Geck framed mirrors
Red and gray American marble
Now serves as temple room
Mrs. Fisher’s Suite
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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
Fisher’s girlfriends”
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Ceiling borders have
leafing of mixed gold and
silver
Master Bedroom
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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”
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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
Games Room
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Two regulation sizebowling 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
Domed Swimming Pool
After Fisher
In January 1976, Alfred Brush Ford (greatgrandson 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, founderacarya 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.
The Temple