Fisher Homestead Showcases Living History
The Fisher Homestead is a historical landmark of the
Oley Valley. The Georgian-style home built in 1801 fea
tures a 13-room interior with two 8-foot wide hallways,
six fireplaces, and the finest details of master carpentry.
LOU ANN GOOD
Lancaster Farming Staff
OLEY (Berks Co.) It’s diffi
cult to tell where history begins
and where it ends at the 1790
Fisher Homestead, where living
history continues to unfold
around Frank and Hilda Fisher.
The feisty 80-year-old Hilda is
a long-time compiler of historical
landmarks for the Berks County
Historical Society. But she has
made plenty of history herself.
She received a national award
from President Reagan for her
work with the National Register
of Historical Places, and numer
ous county awards for preserva
tion of historical places and
graveyards. Recently Hilda was
named Ag Women of the Year
for the county.
Travelers on Route 662 north
of Oley are intrigued by the
handsome Georgian-style home
and the barn and out buildings of
the Fisher Homestead.
The house is modeled similar
to the mansions in the British
Isles. The outer walls of the
house are constructed with
18-inch thick limestone. The
13-room interior features two
8-foot wide halls, six fireplaces
with intricate wood carvings, nu
merous built-in china closets,
chair rail panels, friezes, and cor
nices such as a miniature of a
Corsican general riding his
horse.
The master bedroom or bridal
chamber on the second floor has
the most elaborate wood carv
ings, which at one time was de
sired by the DuPonts of Long
wood Gardens as a summer
room.
Hilda has an abundance of
stories to accompany many of
the home’s features. For in
stance, each window in the house
has 24 panes of Bxlo-inches of
bubble glass. It is said that some
one viewing a crime through the
window could not be considered
a viable witness because the glass
distorted the scene.
Still standing is the stone barn,
used to provide accommodations
for the horses of travelers on the
way to Philadelphia during the
late 1700 s.
The Fishers have compiled an
extensive history of their ances
tors who inhabited the property
before them. At times, the man
sion housed four generations of
Fishers. Frank and Hilda mar
ried in 1942 and moved into the
house in 1945.
Uncommon for that era, both
Frank and Hilda had graduated
from high school. Hilda com
pleted her education at the Kutz
town State Teachers’ College
and taught school two years be
fore marrying.
Frank credits his vocational
agriculture teacher for instilling
different farming methods.
While neighbors were skeptical
of “newfangled” ideas, the voca
tional teacher garnered Frank’s
dad’s respect when he helped
shock wheat during an unex
pected visit.
Through this newly-intro
duced ideas, Frank said students
learned to feed cattle rations, to
keep lights on in the chicken
house in order to induce chickens
to lay more eggs, and to fertilize
wheat, corn, and oats.
He remembers when the fami
ly purchased one of the first
Fordsom tractors.
“But tractors aren’t what they
are today,” Frank said. The fam
ily’s first tractor required “one to
cook before the tractor did when
starting it,” he said of the labori
ous effort.
The move to the Fisher man
sion had not been anticipated
when they first married. Hilda
recalls that on their wedding day,
Frank’s grandparents, who lived
on the property, did not attend
their wedding because it was
butchering day. The bridal pair
decided to drop by the home
stead after the wedding. Because
of bad weather, Frank carried
the bride across the threshold, a
custom associated with a couple
first moving into their own
home.
“We never knew that someday
we would live here,” Hilda said.
Eventually, the couple had two
sons, Steve who married Matjo
rie Werner, and Gery who mar
ried Carol Falter, and a daughter
Eloise.
Hilda returned to teach about
13 years after the couple had
their first child. Frank continued
to farm IS2 acres and was a
school director for 20 years.
Farming methods changed
dramatically during Frank’s
farming years. He recalls having
free-range chickens in every
building on the property.
“I had to hunt eggs and spend
a whole night grading them to
take them to the Philadelphia
market the next day,” Frank
said.
£We never lived on Easy Street, but we
lived on Happy Street. 5
ank and Hilda Fisher have retained the historical significance of the home with its
walk-in fireplace yet added modern conveniences. The “elens fenster,” or soul window,
which is a small window at the side of the walk-in fireplace, is reported to have been
kept open in accordance with the superstitious belief that if there were no open win
dow, there was no way for the soul of the deceased to escape.
Elaborate wood carvings are different in each of the six fireplace mantels and the
flanking built-in closets that appear in the mansion.
While fanning isn’t as labor
intensive as those days, Frank
considers it more difficult to
make it financially nowadays.
“Today corn prices are only
half of what they were when I
started. We must preserve farm
land but we must also preserve
the farm family to continue to
exist,” Frank said. “Market
prices must align with the stan
Hilda Fisher
Berks County Ag Woman Of The Year.
dard of living.”
This is the first year that
Frank is no longer farming. His
son Steve retired from his job to
take over crop farming.
The Fishers have always made
vacation a priority. They have
also been active in the Interna
tional Farm Youth Exchange,
with their sons going to Iran and
Australia. The family hosted two
exchangees from Turkey and one
from Iran.
While the characteristics of
old homes are generally admired
today, it wasn’t always so. Dur
ing the 19505-19605, many farm
houses were modernized, de
stroying such features as walk-in
fireplaces and brush-painting
techniques on wainscoting and
doors.
Fortunately, the Fishers have
always valued the historical sig
nificance of the property. “We
don’t want to change things,”
Hilda said of the home’s unique
features. For example the origi
nal 1830’s French wallpaper is
still on the living room ceiling.
Although aged, the decorative
paper maintains the elaborate
detail of that era.
The Fishers pointed out a
“elens fenster,” or soul window,
which is a small window at the
side of the walk-in fireplace. The
window was kept open by the su
perstitious belief that if there
were no open window, there was
no way for the soul of the de
ceased to escape.
Although many of the home’s
original furnishings had been
passed down to various other
families over the years, the Fish
ers have been able to purchase or
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