The history of Carriage House West, and indeed, all of the homes at 10 Arlington Place, is inextricably linked to an early-20th-century businessman named Sylvio Antonio Casparis. The Italian-born Casparis emigrated to the United States in 1875, arrived in Columbus in 1890, and by 1892 had founded the Casparis Stone Company. The firm joined three other companies in 1913 to form the Marble Cliff Quarries Company, which eventually became operators of the largest limestone quarry in the country.

Casparis hired architect Frank Packard in 1908 to create an estate in the Village of Marble Cliff on a ridge overlooking the Scioto River. The 5-acre estate included a luxurious Manor House (commonly known as Casparis Castle) and a Carriage House with an imposing five-story tower. The 17th-century Jacobean architectural styling of the buildings, retained through the decades, was intended to replicate a Scottish castle.

View of Casparis Manor House (right) and Carriage House from the Scioto River.

The interior of the Carriage House was much more modest than the Manor House, with the first floor used as a working stable and business space for the estate. It is said that Casparis used the Carriage House tower to keep watch over the workers in his quarries. From there he also could inventory the railway boxcars as they left the quarry area. The second floor was once a 5-room apartment.

Upon Casparis’s death in 1921, the estate passed through ownership of different families until St. Mary’s Educational Institute of Cincinnati purchased it in 1942. Renamed Maryhurst, the property was used to provide religious training for young girls who lived in the Carriage House. In the late 1960s, the property returned to private owners with the Carriage House utilized as offices for an architectural firm.

The transformation of the Casparis estate into the site’s current condominium community began in 1978 and 1979. Columbus developer Ron Pizzuti converted the original Manor House and Carriage House into two condominiums each, containing approximately 5,000 and 3,500 square feet, respectively. Clustered around the historic buildings are an additional 10 condominium units, each designed to complement the Jacobean architectural style of the originals. The development was dubbed “No. 10 Arlington Place” in homage to the lot’s original designation in 1889.

1889 plat showing Lot 10.

Carriage House West is the latest incarnation of one section of the Carriage House. Clues to its original use can still be found, such as the wide-arched stone doorway that accommodated horses and carriages. Similar reminders can be seen throughout, from surviving sections of copper gutters and downspouts to the original windows, demonstrating the care that guided the current owners, Kristi and Derrick Layer, in the extensive remodeling project they began in July 2022. The Layers are no strangers to executing daunting plans: Mr. Layer is the owner of Derrick Layer Custom Homes and Remodeling, the firm that undertook the work. And this is the fourth home the couple has transformed together.

On the first floor, a cozy den and powder room are located off the entry way. In the main living area, the Layers removed a 2-sided fireplace (not original to the house and added by a previous owner in 1978) that had divided the room and also found additional vertical space above the ceiling. The resulting room is an open living area topped with crown molding and accented with a modern gas fireplace. Upstairs are three bedrooms, a guest bathroom, and a laundry room. The areas that comprise the primary bedroom were rearranged, with a dressing room and bathroom creatively swapped as part of the remodel.

From its elegant beginnings through its various iterations to the stunning homes you see today, Carriage House West and its companions at No. 10 Arlington Place provide the community with a glimpse into Marble Cliff’s rich history. As an early advertisement for the development stated, No. 10 Arlington Place “offers the elegance of yesterday, the echoes of dreams, the mystery of faraway places…There is nothing like it.”

Carriage House West

1216 West First Avenue

1286 Wyandotte Road

943 Copeland Road

1117 Wyandotte Road

1358 Cambridge Boulevard