‘New Canaan Now & Then’ is sponsored by Brown Harris Stevens Realtors Joanne Santulli, Karen Ceraso, Bettina Hegel and Schuyler Morris.
The “James House” on Frogtown Road was built in 1965 and designed by an unknown architect.
The original house was one story with a basement structure and had a square footprint with wood decks wrapping around the south and east sides. The house currently has a complicated roofline with a gable roof and deep eaves. Wood decks are found on the first floor. The current two car garage was incorporated into the footprint of the original house.
According to land records, the property was owned by Robert Roles, a prominent New Canaan builder. Mr. Roles built many homes on the West side of town. In 1962 the property was sold to Miles B. Olson. Mr. Olson was also a builder and built homes on Llewelyn Drive, Fable Farm Road, Wahackme Road and Bridle Path Lane. Sadly, Mr. Olson died on Sept. 16, 1963 at the age of 40 . The shock of his death reportedly was too much for his father, Percy Olson of St. Paul, Minn., and he died a few days later.
In 1964, Phillip A. James purchased the property for $13,000. In December 1971 the property was sold to Alfred E. Fischer and Glenna Fischer.
Mr. Fischer was born June 28, 1932 in Brooklyn, New York. An artist in his youth, he returned to this creative outlet designing and welding larger-than-life steel sculptures and smaller wooden carvings. He shaped the land around his home, hand-crafting stone walls, building bridges, planting and tending gardens. Mr. Fischer was an insurance executive whose office was near Ground Zero in New York City.
In an article post-9/11 he said that the lesson he learned was, ”You say a happy goodbye in the morning to the people you care about, and you go and do your thing. There’s no guarantee that you’re going to come back, but at least if you don’t, the last memory people have of you is a good one.”
Mr. Fischer died in Whitinsville, Mass. at the age of 91 in August 2023.
Glenna Fischer was a talented soprano singer, and in 1976 was a member of the Schubert Arranges Musical Workshop. In the 1980s she was also a member of the pro arte group in New Canaan. In 1986 while working towards her doctorate degree at Columbia University she created a seminar titled “Increasing self effectiveness through more efficient time usage.”
Ms. Fischer was in private practice in New Canaan and New York City as a counselor and psychotherapist.
In 1990 the Fischers added a sunroom and an entrance to the house at the cost of $35,000. In July 2018 the property was sold to Arshad Allibhai and within a few months the property deed was transferred to an LLC. A notice of demolition has been posted by the current owners that would include the rear sunrooms and decks (the additions from 1990). However, the majority of the original structure will remain intact.