The Earliest Photograph of The Fisher House

 This photograph is dated 1888, and is the earliest known photographic image of the Fisher Farm, showing buildings long demolished.  The picture is invaluable to us for the many things it tells us about the Fisher  House and grounds, showing long vanished buildings.  Seated in the foreground, from left to right are Jonathan Fisher's son Willard, Willard's daughter Augusta and her brother Frederick, the last of the family to occupy the homestead, and Sarah Hinckley, daughter of Jonathan Fisher's daughter Mary Stevens, grandmother of Fisher Memorial founder Ethelwynne Hinckley.

Behind them is the 1814 portion of the house, with dark trim, as it probably was in JF's day.  On the doorstep are large exotic seashells, once a common tradition throughout Blue Hill. To the left of the house is the pear tree, identified as a 'St. Germain' pear on Fisher's 1821 orchard plan.  The pear tree still flourishes and bears fruit today, a living link to Parson Fisher.  Growing on the house is a vine, identified as a Hop vine. To the immediate right is a carriage shed, attached to the rear, which was added in the mid 19th century by Willard.  Next to that, in the center of the photograph, is the Wood House/Hog Cote, designed and built by JF.  Attached to its ridge pole can be seen a martin house, which was a miniature copy of the main house. The building on the left was Fisher's lumber house and workshop, housing his massive lathe, and was probably the barn in which the sons slept in summer.  Young cedar hedges replace the picket fence of Parson Fisher's time.