J. J. Hill House (Travel) St. Paul, MN USA

James J. Hill: “Empire Builder”

The story of James J. Hill is a success story of a man who moved up the ranks of business and society to become one of the most influential men in his time. He is a wonderful example of what could be accomplished with grit and hard work during this heroic era in the formation of America.

J.J. Hill was a pivotal force in the transformation of America’s Northwest, earning him the name the “Empire Builder.” The native Canadian’s name became synonymous with railroad innovation and visionary business leadership in the last quarter of the 19th century.

James J. Hill

After amassing a personal fortune estimated at $63 million and over $200 million in related assets, James J. Hill died in his Summit Avenue home on May 29, 1916, one of the wealthiest and most powerful figures of America’s Gilded Age.

Hill Legacy

At the end of his life, Hill was asked by a newspaper reporter to reveal the secret of his success. Hill responded with characteristic bluntness: “Work, hard work, intelligent work – and then more work.”

Fun Facts…

Hill’s influence in the literature and music of America’s Gilded Age was a fun surprise in my research:

Hill is the man whom Gatsby’s father says Gatsby would have equaled if he had lived long enough in the classic novel,”The Great Gatsby.”

Hill and his railway are mentioned in the Harry McClintock song “Hallelujah, I’m a Bum.”

James J. Hill Stone Arch Bridge

The James J. Hill Stone Arch Bridge was built between 1881 and 1883 to carry the Minneapolis Union Railroad over the Mississippi River just below St. Anthony Falls in Minneapolis.

James J. Hill

James Jerome Hill was born on September 16, 1838 in southern Ontario to Irish immigrant parents. Hill’s father died when he was 14. He began clerking in local shops before setting off to seek his fortune. In 1856, at age 17, Hill’s career in transportation began as a clerk on the St. Paul levee.

Mrs. Mary Hill

Like James, his wife was an Irish immigrant. Born on July 1, 1846 in New York City, her family later moved to Chicago and then settled in St. Paul in 1850. In 1867, Mary Theresa Mehegan married James J. Hill. They were married for 49 years and had ten children.

Mary Hill proved to be a profitable and able partner with James. She maintained a watchful eye over the household, raised ten children, hired and managed servants. Of the many social events she hosted in her vast mansion, the highlight was a reception for President William McKinley in 1899.

Hill’s North Oaks Farm

In 1883, Hill purchased 3,500 acres of land in the countryside about ten miles north of his St. Paul mansion in Mounds View and White Bear Townships. Hill named his property North Oaks Farm. In the next few years he purchased adjacent farms to increase his land ownership to about 5,500 acres.

North Oaks Farm was owned by the family until the 1950s. The land was divided into parcels for a carefully planned community with an emphasis on preserving its natural beauty. It is said that Hill’s grandson helped survey most of the early lots himself and would sometimes alter the path of the a road to save a single tree…no grid-like street patterns here.

To ensure their mission would be fulfilled, plots were sold with a warranty deed that created the North Oaks Home Owners’ Association (NOHOA) to be responsible for roads and recreation. Each deed placed each home’s property line halfway into the street, placing all roads into private ownership.

North Oaks Family Farm

Summers were spent at the Hill family’s North Oaks Farm. Each spring, Hill made an annual trip to his hunting lodge in Quebec for salmon fishing.

I live close to North Oaks, and knew it was a unique community, but I had not realized that it had been part of the Hill property before this blog!

VISIT: The site of the Hill estate on the southwest corner of Pleasant Lake in North Oaks is now an open-air museum. Three of the original 40 buildings remaining. Check out activities at website: hillfarmhistoricalsociety.com

Hill House: West Wing

In the right wing, west side, the dining room, terrace, library and China closet were on the first floor. The five girls’ bedrooms were on the second floor. The servants’ quarters were on the third floor.

Hill House: East Wing

The left wing, east side of the house is the 2 story Picture Gallery which displayed his art work and holds a 3 story pipe organ. (Details below)

Hill House: Back/South Side

Looking out the back of the home was the Drawing Room (1st floor) and above it the bedrooms of Mr. and Mrs. Hill (2nd floor). It also provided a spectacular view from the balcony midway up the grand stairway. This side of the 3rd floor housed a Gymnasium (school room). The fourth floor features a stage in a room that could seat 200 people, a grand piano, and gymnastic equipment. The Hill children used the room as a playroom.

Hill House on a Hill: South Side

The Hill’s had a spectacular view of the river and growing downtown St. Paul from the back of their home. Today an interstate and a medical complex occupy this space. This photo taken from the medical complex window provides a glimpse of the proximity of the Hill House (left) and the Cathedral (right).

The terraced lawn once featured a gardener’s house, power plant, four greenhouses, and a mushroom cave.

Grand Entrance

The home served as a center for the public and private lives of the Hill family. Once inside the Carriage Porch, the entrance into the house is as grand as one would expect. The reception hall is nearly 100 feet long and used for entertaining, dancing and impressing all who enter – then and now!

The house contains 36,000 square feet on five floors. It includes 13 bathrooms, 22 fireplaces, 16 crystal chandeliers, a two-story skylit art gallery all decorated with stained glass, gilding and crystal chandeliers.

Innovative technical systems provided central heating, gas and electric lighting, plumbing, ventilation, security and communication.

Reception Hall

Features that made the interior extra-special were a profusion of elaborately carved oak and mahogany woodwork.

When the house was completed in 1891, it was equipped with the most advanced technologies of the day. Built during the transition between gas and electric lighting, the house was designed to include both.

Grand Staircase

Master carver John Kirchmayer, a Bavarian immigrant, was paid $1 per hour for his intricate carving of the home’s grand staircase. Compare this to $1.75 per day earned by general laborers in 1891.

Grand Staircase

Visitors today can enjoy walking up the grand staircase to the third floor rooms. The balcony half way up faces south and showcases intricate stained glass windows.

Drawing Room: Now

The first room we experienced was the Drawing Room where we met our guide. The photo on the wall revealed what it previously looked like (no date given).

Hill family Weddings

The home served as the center for the public and private lives of the Hill family for the next 30 years. Children grew up in the house, and four daughters had their weddings in the large drawing room. Newlyweds often lived in the enormous house until their own homes were completed, five of which were close by on Summit Avenue. Grandchildren visited in later years, bringing the house to life! I can only imagine what fun it was to run down the halls, up the stairs, and hide in the nooks and crannies of this huge house.

Drawing Room: Then

The style of the Drawing Room is a “Louis XV” French Revival. The woodwork is mahogany, painted white. The ceiling moldings are paper-mache. The table (partially seen in my photo) has an oval base that mimics the oval design in the ceiling.

Dining Room

The formal Dining Room was the most elaborate room. It included a sample of a formal place setting. Partitioned walls hid servants as they waited to be summoned by Mrs. Hill’s special buzzer system. This space also hid a door used to bring food to and from the kitchen via a dumbwaiter in the basement below.

For security, windows and doors were wired to an annunciator system that would ring an alarm in the houseman’s room if they were opened unexpectedly. Buzzers under the dining room tables allowed Mary Hill to discreetly summon waitresses during a meal.

Breakfast Room

The Breakfast Room near the dining room is where the family would dine not only for breakfast, but also when the formal dining room was too big.

Sample of Place Setting for Formal Six-Course Dinner, ca. 1910

Bedroom

On the second floor overlooking the city below were the bedrooms of Mr. and Mrs. Hill. Their rooms were adjoining in part because they needed privacy as both had people to help them get dressed! Also, Mr. Hill often worked late into the night and did not want to disrupt Mrs. Hill!

The innovative technical systems provided central heating, gas and electric lighting, plumbing, ventilation, security and communication.

Bathrooms

Thirteen bathrooms featured state-of-the-art plumbing, with hot and cold running water. This one is off of Mr. Hill’s bedroom.

Kitchen

The huge basement of the Hill House contained servants’ dining and sitting room, bedrooms for male staff including the houseman and valet. The spacious kitchen featured a dumbwaiter to bring food to the dining room above it. The wine cellar, pantries, laundry, and boiler room all had their spots. It also included the hand-pumped bellows for the 1,006-pipe organ in the skylit gallery above. The floor of the main hallway is inlaid marble.

Boiler Room

Hannah, our guide, told us that the Boiler Room is high on the list of favorite rooms in the house! An elaborate ventilation system, which included twenty-two fireplaces, ensured that air moved freely throughout the house.

Pipe Organ

At the east end of the first floor is a two-story skylit art gallery. It is here where Hill showcased his extensive collection of French paintings, I was intrigued by the sun protective shades covering the skylight.

Also in this room is a three-story 1,006-pipe organ, created by renowned Boston organ-maker George Hutchings. The hand-pumped bellows are in the basement below. It was refurbished in 2018 for $141,000.00 with private donations. Concerts are held regularly by the Schubert Club.

Art Gallery

Hill amassed a magnificent art collection. It consisted mainly of Barbizon School of mid-19th century landscape painters. Retractable iron grilles on the windows and doors provided security for the collection and the family’s other valuable possessions.

Hill donated much of the art collection to the Minneapolis Institute of Art (Mia), which he helped found in 1915.

Art: A Personal Connection

Of the hundreds of paintings available from the Hill collection at the Mia, I chose two to highlight here. Fortunately, it was not a difficult choice!

The first one is “Mill Pond at Minneapolis, 1888.” It has a personal connection for both Hill – and me!

For Hill, it is directly associated with the Stone Arch Bridge, commissioned by him and completed in 1883. This view of the mill pond in Minneapolis was painted from the west side of the Mississippi River, looking toward the University of Minnesota.

For me, the connection harks to my family’s heritage! It was in 1888 that my great-great-grandfather immigrated from Sweden and worked in the Pillsbury “A” Mill, on the river banks in this same place. He would have seen this scene daily as he walked to work!

Art: A Student Favorite

The second choice is “Springtime of Life. “ This was always a favorite of my art history students when we toured this section of the Mia.

Besides being a lovely painting, it evoked warm feelings within my students, especially the girls, as we imagined the story the girl in the picture might have to share with us!