Samuel Hill

Samuel Hill (1857–1931) was a businessman, lawyer, railroad executive and advocate of good roads in the Pacific Northwest. He had a substantial impact on the economic development of the Pacific Northwest in the early 20th century.

Some of his more notable projects include the Peace Arch, a monument to 100 years of peace between the United States and Canada, on the border between Blaine, Washington and Surrey, British Columbia; the Maryhill Museum of Art, a building originally conceived as a residence; and a replica of Stonehenge in Maryhill, a memorial to fallen World War I soldiers from Klickitat County, Washington.

Biography

Sam Hill grew up in Minneapolis, Minnesota. After graduating from Haverford College and Harvard University (in 1879), he returned to Minneapolis, where he practiced law. A number of successful lawsuits against the Great Northern Railway attracted the attention of railway general manager James J. Hill, who hired him into the railway. They also became family in 1888, when Sam Hill married J. J. Hill's eldest daughter Mary.

By 1902, Hill had decided to settle in Seattle, Washington. His wife Mary did not take well to the Northwest, and moved back to Minneapolis with their two children without him after six months. Hill stayed in Seattle, and embarked on a number of ventures in the Northwest.

Much of Hill's attention was devoted to advocating good roads in Washington and Oregon. He created the Washington State Good Roads Association, and persuaded the Washington State Legislature to create a state highway department, and the University of Washington to establish the United States' first chair in highway engineering. He was renowned for his scenic Columbia River Highway, which linked coastal Astoria, Oregon and The Dalles, Oregon.

Hill bought land in Klickitat County near the Columbia River, envisioning a new community in the Inland Empire. He named the parcel Maryhill, after his wife and his daughter Mary (who never actually lived there). His original plan was to develop it as a community of Quaker farmers, but no Quakers besides himself ever moved there. The land proved useful for his transportation advocacy; he built, at his own expense, the first paved road in the Pacific Northwest, part of which is still open to pedestrians and bicyclists (now called the Maryhill Loop Road.) He also built a mansion, but later decided – at the urging of his friend Queen Marie of Romania – to convert it into an art museum. The museum was dedicated in 1926, but did not open to the public until 1940, nine years after Hill's death.

Members of the Oregon Legislative Assembly visited Maryhill in 1915, praising him for his work on the Biggs-Wasco road; he also won praise for his construction work on the Pacific Highway, which he envisioned as a road running from Canada to Mexico. Oregon Governor James Withycombe, however, derided the Biggs-Wasco project as a road originating and leading to "nowhere" and a wasted effort.

Hill constructed two notable monuments. The replica of Stonehenge, at Maryhill, commemorates the dead of World War I, while the Peace Arch, where today's Interstate 5 highway crosses the U.S.–Canada border, celebrates peaceful relations and the open border between the two nations.

The Sam Hill Memorial Bridge, which carries U.S. Route 97 across the Columbia River near Maryhill, is named for him.

External links

* [http://www.historylink.org/essays/output.cfm?file_id=5072 HistoryLink Essay on Sam Hill]
* [http://www.maryhillmuseum.org/ Maryhill Museum of Art]