Grandview Heights / Marble Cliff Historical Society

Thomas Farm - Carfagna (1908)

789 Northwest Blvd.

King and Ben Thompson purchased the 1000 acre Miller Farm north of West Fifth Avenue on

December 24, 1913 and began development of what they first called the "Country Club District",

later to be named Upper Arlington. In 1916 they purchased the Thomas Farm and started the

Northwest Boulevard Company to develop land along the boulevard that begins at Goodale

Boulevard and winds its way northwest to Fischinger Road in Arlington.

This home is now on the site of a condominium development on Northwest just north

of Goodale. For an interesting account of life in the house, read excerpts from the book

"The Life and Times of James Oscar Thomas" by Caroline Thomas Harnsberger.

The Unseen House

The old house stands, and passers-by

See wall and roof and window,

The shell and coverlet ,and incrustation

Of a spirit that lived there.

 

They cannot see that these old walls

Had wrapped our youthful dreams,

That rooms had formed a rosary

Of vision, hope and happiness.

They cannot know that walls, now standing

Once had steeped in music,

That ceilings here had richocheted our laughter.

They cannot see the young years' aspirations,

The anguish that came with a learning heart.

Nor can they see creating hands,

Nor searching minds, nor stillness,

Nor love, nor wit, nor a child's anxiety.

The old house stands, and passers-by

See wood and stone, but not the elements

Of which our house was built.

 

Caroline Thomas Harnsberger