Get to Know the Fishers
Family is Everything
In 2020 we found ourselves packed up and prepared to move thousands of miles across the country from Texas to New Hampshire. Recent life experiences placed in our hearts a desire to find a new home where we could continue raising our family and supplement our income. After looking at several homes in the area and falling in love with New Hampshire’s historic architecture, we settled in the National Register–listed Charles S. Hall House in Epsom. Our dream of building a family business from our home is taking shape, and we look forward to sharing our growth and our life in New Hampshire with you.
Purple House History
The Charles S. Hall House
The Purple House at 1740 Dover Road is officially the Charles S. Hall House. Listed in the National Register on June 13, 2002, it is Epsom’s only surviving example of Second Empire design.
The Site and the Present House
Dover Road follows the historic Concord–Portsmouth route through Gossville. Deeds show buildings on this part of Lot 94 before the Hall era: Aaron Estabrook in 1852; Nathan and Morrill Bickford in 1859; William Ham in 1860; and Brown, Goss, and Robinson transactions in 1873. Those records prove an older site, not that the earlier buildings are the house seen today.
The National Register dates the present house to about 1890 and carefully says it was “built or extensively remodeled” then. Its mansard roof, dormers, brackets, bays, porches, and patterned shingles combine Second Empire and Queen Anne–era detail. The main house, north ell, kitchen ell, summer kitchen, and carriage barn form a connected complex. No architect or builder has yet been identified.
Ellen and Charles Hall
On November 17, 1883, Jacob Robinson and his wife conveyed the roughly ten-acre house parcel to Ellen M. Hall in her own name (deed book 266, page 436). A separate deed conveyed a nearby store interest to Charles S. Hall (book 266, page 438). The modern property is about 3.78 acres and should not be confused with the larger 1883 parcel.
Charles Sumner Hall was born June 3, 1854, the youngest of nine children of John Clark Hall and Martha E. Rand. Ellen M. Dolbeer, daughter of Calvin and Abby Dolbeer, was born December 11, 1855. They married December 11, 1876, and had no children. Charles worked in merchandising, lumber, farming, cattle, and shoe-box manufacturing and served in the New Hampshire legislature in 1889. The house was built or substantially remodeled for Charles and Ellen during this active period.
The Hall Family and Later Owners
George M. Hall was Charles’s nephew, not his son. George was a son of Charles’s older brother John Hamilton Hall and Nellie Farnham. On September 10, 1925, Charles transferred the house to George M. and Ethel M. Hall (book 477, page 387). Ethel’s maiden surname remains unconfirmed, and published accounts disagree about Martha E. Rand’s parentage.
1925: George M. and Ethel M. Hall
August 7, 1933: Lillian E. Morrison
1988: Robert and Beverly Miner
1997: Kathleen McCormack
2006: Nilmah
2010: Stephen and Christie Gerasimchik
2020: Andrew and Shauna Fisher
Gossville Context
The First New Hampshire Turnpike, completed around 1800, connected Concord and Portsmouth along this corridor. Gossville later grew through the road, the railroad, the Epsom Shoe Factory established in 1881, and local box, lumber, and lace businesses. A Gossville historic district was proposed in 1991 but was not listed; the Hall House received its own National Register listing in 2002.
Sources and Further Reading
National Register nomination: https://npgallery.nps.gov/NRHP/GetAsset/NRHP/02000640_text
Merrimack County Registry of Deeds: https://merrimackcountydeedsnh.com/LandmarkWeb/
Epsom Historical Association: Gossville and Goboro Road: https://www.epsomhistory.com/epsom/history/Gossville%20and%20Goboro%20Road.pdf
1892 Epsom map: https://www.davidrumsey.com/maps1150785-30851.html
Research note: This account separates documented facts from unresolved questions. Future discoveries may clarify the architect or builder and the remaining Hall-family details.
