Inside Look at Kahn House

Since 1967, it’s been the house on the block that’s stuck out from all the rest. Nina Fisher, who grew up in the East Mill Road home with her parents, recalled that someone once said, “that house is going to look great once they uncrate it.” 

“Early on people kind of viewed the house with some skepticism and amusement,” said Fisher. “It was so different than anything on the street.”

On April 7, passerby and curious neighbors alike can get an inside look at Nina Fisher’s childhood home, located at 197 E. Mill Road in Hatboro, and possibly buy a “piece of the house – something that had been in that house and was emblematic of it” during an estate sale.

Beginnings of architectural history

The square-shaped home, which was designed by University of Penn architecture professor Louis I. Kahn, was built during a seven-year period beginning in 1960 and ending in 1967, when Fisher was 10 years old. 

She said her father, the late Dr. Norman Fisher and mother, Doris Fisher, had sought out Kahn in either 1959 or 1960. The Fishers were looking for an alternative to the family’s Victorian-style Hatboro residence, which at that time co-existed atop her father's practice, she said. 

Kahn, she said, was a natural fit. 

“They bonded with him. That’s kind of where it all started,” Fisher said. “They both had sort of unusual tastes, especially for that time period.”

Unusual indeed. Cubes dominate the design of the home, which Fisher said also features an 18-foot-high ceiling in the living room and windows that open all the way down to the floor.

But, Fisher said it wasn’t until Kahn’s death in 1974 that people really began to notice the building that she and her family called home.

“We did have a few architects stopping by,” Fisher said of the home’s early origins, adding that the lure has grown “exponentially” in the last two decades. “It’s a rare visit when we’re there that some group or another doesn’t stop by to see the house.”

Shantia Anderheggen, an easement administrator in the law department for the National Trust for Historic Preservation, attributes some of Kahn’s popularity with him being an “architect’s architect” and training many late 20th century architects.

“He is an internationally iconic architect,” Anderheggen said.

‘Perpetually preserving’ history 

That, in part, is why the National Trust for Historic Preservation will, in the coming months, take steps to “perpetually preserve” the home.

Fisher, who now lives in Maryland, said her parents deeded their family’s home of 45 years to the National Trust for Historic Preservation. Since her father’s death in 2007, she said the home has been moving closer to that end. Her mother is still alive, but suffers from dementia, Fisher said.

“We knew we’d have to give it up at some point,” Fisher said, referring to herself and her sister, Claudia Gohl, who now lives in Vermont. “It was a slow process.” 

As the process moves forward, the house that Dr. Fisher had built with $45,000 will be appraised, listed with a realtor and sold as a “privately owned and protected building,” according to Anderheggen.

“It’s not taken off the tax rolls the way a museum would be,” Anderheggen said of the structure, which will continue to function as a residence. “It’s very well-preserved. Nearly every feature is intact.”

And, Anderheggen said the Trust would like to keep it that way. As a condition of the home’s sale, Anderheggen said a preservation easement would ensure that the building is maintained and unaltered. Home repairs and upgrades are possible, she said, but, “owners are going to have to get our review and approval.”

Anderheggen said she does not yet know the home’s value, or what the asking price might be, but said she expects to have it listed publicly within the coming months.

“We anticipate that there’ll be a lot of interest in it,” she said. “It’s a very livable house.”

Nina Fisher joked that she and her sister have their own conditions for the prospective buyer.

“Anybody who buys it has to invite us over for dinner,” Fisher said.

If you go 

An estate sale of items owned by the Fishers is slated for April 7 from 9 a.m. to 3 p.m. at the Fisher home, 197 E. Mill Road in Hatboro. The residence was designed by world-renowned architect Louis I. Kahn. Items owned by Dr. Norman Fisher can also be purchased as part of an online auction here.