Moment in Time (January 13, 2022)

This photograph and inset show the three homes built in 1889 by Timothy J. Price for his wife and him and for the families of his son J.E. Price and daughter Mary Jane Price Griswold. The J.E Price home is in the lower inset, with Fifth Avenue at the bottom and the railroad tracks on the right at the base of the hill leading to the Marble Cliff Station. Mary Jane's home is at the left in the main photo and T. J. and Mary had the home on the right.

Timothy Jenkins Price was a prominent Columbus businessman in the mid-1800s. He was born in Wales in 1810, and immigrated to the United States in 1829. Price married Mary Roberts, who was born the same year in Dolgradog, North Wales. They lived in Utica, New York and in 1864 moved to Columbus (Franklin County death records show his birth year to be 1819, but all other records we have show it to be 1810.) Historical Society Trustee Tom DeMaria pointed out in his research for a presentation of the history of Marble Cliff that Mary Roberts and her sisters, who were in his words "of high social standing", played a big role in the ultimate success of Price. Mary's sister Catherine (Kate) married prominent railroad executive Benjamin Smith, who founded the Hocking Valley Railway Co. and became partners with Price in several ventures. (The home of Benjamin and Kate Smith is now the Columbus Club, located at East Broad and Fourth Street in downtown Columbus.) Two of the partnerships were the Smith-Price Co. and Stitt, Price & Company, which was founded in 1852.

Benjamin Smith purchased nearly 1000 acres of land, which included stone quarries on the west side of the Scioto River, and an 800 acre farm, a large portion of which was part of the original Upper Arlington development. He subsequently subdivided the farm and sold to Price 320 acres, which included the quarries. The T.J. Price Stone Company was founded to mine the quarries. Some of the limestone from Price's quarry was processed at the Stitt, Price & Co. site, which was downtown near the banks of the Scioto River at the intersection of Gay and Scioto Streets. They were dealers in lime, stone, plaster, cement, and plastering hair.

T.J. and Mary had three daughters, Louise, Mary Jane, and Anna, and a son John Evan Price. Louise married Daniel Stafford, and Anna married Charles Horace Hall, who became the managing partner of Stitt, Price & Co. and oversaw operations at the Price quarries, and was Secretary, Treasurer, and Manager of the Rock Plaster Manufacturing Company. Mary Jane married Charles Griswold, a partner in the firm of McCune, Lonnis and Griswold, later known as Griswold and Sohl, manufacturers of carriage parts and components for companies across the United States. J.E. Price (John) was the superintendent of the quarry company and lived on the quarry property. He ultimately owned the company after his father's death, and later sold it to his Marble Cliff neighbor Sylvio Casparis.

In 1889 T.J. Price, his son John, and his son-in-law Charles Griswold subdivided and platted the remaining non-quarry acreage, which included Arlington Place, the first subdivision in what would become Marble Cliff. The goal of this "development team" was to sell property locations for summer homes for prominent industrialists who wanted to spend time away from the grime and pollution of the industrial areas in downtown Columbus. In fact, T.J. Price, who lived downtown at Front and Gay Street, decided that this was a good opportunity to build his own summer home on the bluff in the new addition (their downtown home eventually became the offices for King Thompson Real Estate. King Thompson and his brother were the developers of Upper Arlington.)

Price built three homes, on lots 1, 2, and 3 of the subdivision. The northernmost home, on lot 1, was built as the permanent home of J.E. Price. It is shown in the lower inset of the above photo. He built the adjacent home on lot 2 as a summer home for Mary Jane Griswold, and a summer home for him and Mary on lot 3 (shown in the main photo, taken around 1890, looking west from Dublin Pike, which is now Route 33.) Mary Jane Griswold named her property 'Dolgradog', Welsh for 'Lord of the Valley', after the birthplace of her mother and aunts. The home was razed to build the French Quarter around 1960. Timothy J. Price's home on the right occupied the site of the current Roxbury Arms Apartments and was actually moved intact to the corner of Arlington and Cardigan Avenues around 1914. It is still there.

T.J. Price died in 1892, his wife Mary in 1899, son J. E. Price in 1914, daughters Louise in 1923, Mary Jane in 1926, and Anna in 1929. (Other highlights in this area can be found on the free History Walks app or online at http://tours.grandviewhistorywalks.org under the 'Marble Cliff Highlights' walking tour).