Peter G. Thomson House, commonly known as Laurel Court, is a registered historic building in Cincinnati

Cincinnati, Ohio

Cincinnati is a city in the U.S. state of Ohio. Cincinnati is the county seat of Hamilton County. Settled in 1788, the city is located to north of the Ohio River at the Ohio-Kentucky border, near Indiana. The population within city limits is 296,943 according to the 2010 census, making it Ohio's...

, Ohio

Ohio

Ohio is a Midwestern state in the United States. The 34th largest state by area in the U.S.,it is the 7th‑most populous with over 11.5 million residents, containing several major American cities and seven metropolitan areas with populations of 500,000 or more.The state's capital is Columbus...

, listed in the National Register

National Register of Historic Places

The National Register of Historic Places is the United States government's official list of districts, sites, buildings, structures, and objects deemed worthy of preservation...

 on November 29, 1979.

Currently the house is a private residence that is available for tours by reservation for special events.

Design and construction

Peter G. Thomson, founder of The Champion Coated Paper Co., began construction on Laurel Court in 1902. He selected James Gamble Rogers, the nephew of Peter's wife, Laura Gamble Thomson, to design the Gilded Age

Gilded Age

In United States history, the Gilded Age refers to the era of rapid economic and population growth in the United States during the post–Civil War and post-Reconstruction eras of the late 19th century. The term "Gilded Age" was coined by Mark Twain and Charles Dudley Warner in their book The Gilded...

 mansion. Although the design is sometimes mistakenly said to be based on the Petit Trianon, Rogers based the house's ordonnance and design system on the Trianon de Marbre, the Grand Trianon

Grand Trianon

The Grand Trianon was built in the northwestern part of the Domain of Versailles at the request of Louis XIV, as a retreat for the King and his maîtresse en titre of the time, the marquise de Montespan, and as a place where the King and invited guests could take light meals away from the strict...

 at Versailles

Versailles

Versailles , a city renowned for its château, the Palace of Versailles, was the de facto capital of the kingdom of France for over a century, from 1682 to 1789. It is now a wealthy suburb of Paris and remains an important administrative and judicial centre...

, France

France

The French Republic , The French Republic , The French Republic , (commonly known as France , is a unitary semi-presidential republic in Western Europe with several overseas territories and islands located on other continents and in the Indian, Pacific, and Atlantic oceans. Metropolitan France...

, as can be seen from the duplication of the Grand Trianon's decorated Ionic order (the Petit Trianon is Corinthian), the governing concept of a colonnade between cubical pavilions, and the overall articulation of the structure. The house is of course smaller than the Grand Trianon, it is revetted in simple stone rather than the varicolored marbles of the French prototype, and it is of two stories rather than one and adapted otherwise to meet the requirements of a private residence of its time, but every design decision in the structure was governed by reference to the Grand Trianon, with no reference whatever to the much later Petit Trianon. The Thomson family moved into the College Hill

College Hill, Cincinnati

College Hill is a residential neighborhood of Cincinnati, Ohio. Originally a wealthy suburb called Pleasant Hill due to its prime location, it was renamed College Hill because of the two colleges that were established there in the mid-nineteenth century...

 residence in 1907.

Features

• Atrium with a retractable roof
• Rookwood
  Rookwood Pottery Company
  Rookwood Pottery is an American ceramics company now located in the Mount Adams neighborhood in Cincinnati, Ohio. Founded in 1880, and successful until the Great Depression, production has been intermittent and at a low level since 1967, though there was a change of ownership in 2006, and expansion...
  
   tile swimming pool
• Turkish carpets
• Library paneled in African rosewood
  Rosewood
  Rosewood refers to any of a number of richly hued timbers, often brownish with darker veining, but found in many different hues. All rosewoods are strong and heavy, taking an excellent polish, being suitable for guitars, marimbas, turnery , handles, furniture, luxury flooring, etc.In general,...
  
  
• Music room decorated in gold leaf
  Gold leaf
  right|thumb|250px|[[Burnishing]] gold leaf with an [[agate]] stone tool, during the water gilding processGold leaf is gold that has been hammered into extremely thin sheets and is often used for gilding. Gold leaf is available in a wide variety of karats and shades...
  
  

Historic uses

• Single Dwelling
• Secondary Structure
• Residence of the Archbishop of Cincinnati
  Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Cincinnati
  The Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Cincinnati covers the southwest region of the U.S. state of Ohio, including the greater Cincinnati and Dayton metropolitan areas. The Archbishop of Cincinnati is Most Rev...
  
  (1947-1977)