Phil H. Marquard: and Cleveland’s "Homes Beautiful"

November 2024 updated and revised edition featuring an epilogue, endnotes and a person index.
The Marquard family built thousands of homes throughout Greater Cleveland and were pioneer developers of the west side and suburbs. Dating back to 1869, they were known as builders of ＂Homes Beautiful＂ and as Cleveland’s oldest home builder. Phil H. Marquard was the entrepreneur behind this vast undertaking. Along with with his family, he created a lasting business, architectural and philanthropic legacy. That legacy is embodied in the West Park mansion he built for his large family. Known as ＂The Big House,＂ its roots go back to the Civil War era and it was home to many hundreds of Clevelanders throughout its storied history. The book also details the author’s campaign to preserve this stately relic from the wrecking ball. This is the story of the man, his family, the eponymous businesses and that big old house against a historic backdrop of some of the best and worst times in the country’s history. The book includes over 350 historic photos and images. The author may be contacted at tamarquard@icloud.com

Tom Marquard grew up in Fairview Park, Ohio. Work relocations took he and his family to Boston, Buffalo and finally to the Detroit area, where he settled in 1976 . Tom retired in 2010 after 40 years in the health insurance industry and resides in Dearborn, Michigan with his wife Peggy. He has three wonderful children and five amazing grandchildren. Tom’s passion for history led him to become the family’s historian. Boxes of documents, photos and memorabilia ended up in his possession and he considered it important to record and share those memories with current and future generations as well as for posterity. His original intent was to put it all down on paper strictly for family. Peggy convinced him to do it in book format and self-publish the valuable memoirs and history. In 2008 he published his first book with Lulu Press about his great grandfather on his mother’s side, ＂The 1864 Civil War Diary and Brief Biography of James B. Essig.＂ His second book was completed in 2013 based on his Uncle Cyril Marquard’s 1920 travel journal of the epic 1920 family trip out West, ＂Trains, Plains & Automobiles,＂ published by CreateSpace, an Amazon company. Since then he has worked exclusively on this book, his most difficult but most rewarding endeavor to date. All three books are available on Amazon. Tom may be contacted through the publishers or at tpmarquard@comcast.net.