When George and Matilda Fisher married in 1919, they wanted to build a special home where they could raise a family. They picked a lot in what was then a new Detroit neighborhood — Palmer Woods, at 7 Mile and Woodward.

The 5,000-square-foot house at 19535 Cumberland Way was finished in 1924: a Tudor-influenced, brick manor home built on a gentle rise. As a buyer for the flourishing S.S. Kresge Company, George had traveled to his native Germany on business and had come back with artifacts for his new home. One was a hand-carved, 10-foot walnut relief to frame the limestone fireplace.

It's no surprise that a house built to last has managed to do just that. You can see for yourself. This Sunday, the Cumberland house will be on the Palmer Woods Holiday Home Tour.

But what is more surprising is that in the 77 years since it was built, the home has had only three owners, each adding a different ambience, but maintaining its welcoming spirit.

"This house definitely has its own personality," said Florise Neville-Ewell, whose family has lived in the Cumberland house since 1988. "People have asked me if it's full of ghosts. But I say no, this house is full of angels."

Where memories were made

The youngest of three children, Sally Fisher Cliff was born to George and Matilda in 1930. As a child, she roamed the vacant lots with her brother Donald, while he collected wood to make birdhouses to sell to neighbors.

She remembers sliding down the wooden banister in the entranceway, and playing in the fishpond in the backyard. Once, Donald took a padlock and locked it onto an iron spindle along the staircase. He lost the key and the lock stayed put for all the years she lived in the house.

Sally's favorite room was the library.

"After dinner, my father would sit in a big chair, my mother in a wing chair and we'd watch the radio!" she said, laughing.

Despite the opulent surroundings, the war years of the 1940s strained everyone. George closed the massive living room to conserve heat.

"The piano was in the living room, and it was too cold for me to take lessons," Sally remembered. "I thought that was wonderful!"

During air-raid drills, her father put on his helmet and patrolled the neighborhood, making sure that no light was escaping from the heavy drapes at the neighbors' windows. He filled the attic of the house with sand in case a bomb set the roof afire.

But those days were far out-numbered by the happy ones spent catching a streetcar downtown or swimming at the nearby Detroit Golf Club.

Sally lived on Cumberland until she married in 1951. Over the next 20 years, the family slowly relinquished its roots in the neighborhood. In 1970, they sold the grand house for less than $50,000.

New life for an old house

In 1988, Florise Neville was clerking for a federal judge when her life changed forever. A native of Chicago, she had always intended to return home to start her career and raise a family.

But then she met Edward Ewell, a native Detroiter who was clerking for another federal judge.

"I thought Detroit would be a short detour," said Florise, "but after Ed and I got engaged, it became my home."

The two young lawyers found themselves trying to plan a wedding and find somewhere to live at the same time. When they crossed the threshold of the house on Cumberland, they knew immediately that they were home.

"It was just like the storybooks," Florise said. "I walked in, and I was floored."

In the late 1980s, when my husband and I moved into the neighborhood, few of the houses in Palmer Woods sold for more than $250,000. The couple couldn't believe that such a stately home was within their means.

They soon discovered that buying the old house would be easier than maintaining it.

"This house was our first kid," said Florise, who now has two children, Edward, 11, and Simone-Alyse, 7.

They started restoring the house, beginning with the slate roof, and ending just last year with a remodeled kitchen. "But with each change, we protected the original integrity," Florise said.

A special invitation

When Florise agreed to put her house on the Holiday Home Tour, she had no idea she'd come face-to-face with its past. Sally's youngest daughter, Barbara Price, was working on the committee, and was thrilled at the opportunity to walk through its rooms again.

"I didn't know that the first children who grew up here were still around," Florise said. "I wanted to invite them back home."

So on Tuesday, Sally and her daughter walked up to the house they hadn't entered in 30 years.

"I broke my front tooth on these stone steps trying to climb them on stilts!" Sally said.

Once inside, Barbara was a flood of tears. "I remember this room," she said in the library. "This is where my grandfather had a whole shelf of books just for us."

"I used to get stuck in this bathroom," said Sally. "The door was so heavy, I couldn't push it open."

"That happens to my daughter, too!" Florise said with a laugh.

"Is there still a padlock on the stairs?" asked Sally.

"A padlock?" Florise repeated, surprised that anyone knew about the padlock. "It's right there!"

Barbara rushed to peek behind the Christmas decorations on the banister. Beneath the garland was the padlock that little Donald Fisher had put there nearly 70 years ago.

"It's so different," said Barbara, teary-eyed. "But somehow it's still the same."

The 12th annual Palmer Woods Holiday Home Tour will take place from 10 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. Sunday. Tickets are $12 per person and $10 each for groups of 20 or more, if purchased in advance. Tickets for $15 per person are available on Sunday at the Palmer Park Golf Course, 19103 Woodward Ave. (the entrance is on 7 Mile). For more information, call 313-892-7384.

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