A Little piece of Paradise… College Hill, Ohio - SELFCRAFT

cost. One of his first employees was with him still in 1930. He also had his family working in keypositions for the company, but they all started at the bottom and earned their way upward.Peter G. and Laura had five children: Peter G., Jr (married Laura Simpson); Alexander (marriedMary Moore Dabney); Mary Belle (married Walter Randall); Logan (married Sylvia Johnston) and Hope(married Reuben Buck Robertson). According to their son Alexander (born 1879), Peter G. took “...everybit as much care of the children as Mother did.”Peter G. decided to give a nephew of Laura’s who had just completed the Beaux Arts architecturalschool in Paris - James Gamble Rogers - a chance to design their home. A graduate of Yale, Rogersreturned to his alma mater to design the modern Yale campus, Harvard, Philips Exeter school and BrownUniversity. Rogers designed “Laurel Court.” Norris S. Knight originally purchased the 23 acre propertyAug. 29, 1867 for $24,214. Thomson purchased the Knight house and land, tearing down the Knighthouse in which they lived for the site on which to build Laurel Court. The family lived in a home acrossthe street at The Oaks during construction.Laurel Court was built in 1902-1905, and was based on the French Renaissance design of Le PetiteTrianon, the Versailles, France palace of Louis XV and later home to Marie Antoinette. (The Governor’sMansion in Frankfort, Ky. was built on the same French model). Known as ‘Gamble,’ he also designed aSwiss Chalet style home for Thomson’s sister, Rhoda, who married Charles Rammelsberg, whose fatherfounded the Rammelsberg Furniture Company. Rogers also designed the Walter deGollyer Randall house,on which site McAuley Convent was built.A railroad spur was added to convey the gray Alabama granite to Laurel Court’s site. The Ionicexterior front columns are made of a continuous piece of stone, not pieces assembled. The building cost$1 million to construct 15 , not including what Laura spent on furnishings acquired on a worldwide buyingtrip.Laurel Court has 36 rooms, including 5 bedrooms, 4 complete bathrooms with showers and 7 footbathtubs. The bathrooms and outdoor swimming pool were made of Rookwood tile. The bathrooms hadthree water choices: hot, cold or rain. The library was paneled in African Rosewood with the grainmatched to form a butterfly pattern. Its wooden floor had a herringbone pattern that changed directiondepending on where the viewer stood. The Turkish carpets were woven especially for particular rooms.Georgian marble was used for the dining room floor. Inlaid Delft tiles highlighted the kitchen walls andthe sink. An elevator and central vacuum was installed, the mansion was heated by hot water, and utilitieswere underground. Solid bronze railings were used on the stair case, supported by balustrades filigreedwith the initials PGT. The walls had a cardboard or felt covering underneath the fabric wall covering foracoustical value and to reduce the visibility of any cracks. Some walls were stenciled.The center of the house has a glass ceiling two-story atrium which permits light to enter the interiorrooms. A Tuscan colonnade frames three sides of the Atrium. Interior walls are constructed ofpolychromic brick made from volcanic ash. Water piped from the cistern below once watered the plantsduring the winter and during the summer the glass ceiling could be retracted for natural rain. When thehouse left to Thomson family, some of the large atrium plants were moved to the Krohn Conservatorywhere they are still thriving.Years later it was written 16 of him: “...he built a noble mansion on College Hill and on its walls hangmany pictures of great artistic merit, while within and without the house are a score of bronze and marblestatues that are veritable museum pieces. The Italian garden adjoining the house is ornamented withmarble statues that would do credit to a European palace. None of these things was merely for display –they were an outward expression of the inner man - a man who loved art for art’s sake and who found inbeautiful and artistic things a spiritual satisfaction. Proud as Mr. Thomson was of a magnificent andsuccessful business career, he was much more proud of his ‘Bibliography’ and of his collection of bookspublished in the days when Ohio was in the making.”15 William Erd of Northside was the brick contractor.16 Cincinnati Enquirer, Peter G. Thomson Expires Following Lingering Illness: Noted In Industrial World, Sat., July 11, 1931.206