Samuel Hill

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

For the recipient of the Victoria Cross, see Samuel Hill (VC)

The Maryhill Stonehenge, WA

A plaque honoring Samuel Hill, mounted on the Peace Arch.

Samuel Hill (1857–1931) was a lawyer, railroad executive and advocate of good roads in the state of Washington. He built the Peace Arch, on the United States–Canada border between Blaine, Washington and Surrey, British Columbia and a replica of Stonehenge in Maryhill, Washington on the Columbia River. His mansion in Maryhill is now the Maryhill Museum of Art.

Sam Hill grew up in Minneapolis, Minnesota. After graduating from Haverhill College and Harvard University, 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. Unfortunately, his family moved back to Minneapolis without him after six months. Meanwhile, he stayed in Seattle, and embarked on a number of ventures in Washington.

He bought land in Klickitat County, Washington near the Columbia River, and named the parcel Maryhill, after his daughter Mary (who never actually lived there). His original plan was to develop it as a community of Quaker farmers, but he found few were interested. The land proved useful for his transportation advocacy; he built, at his own expense, the first paved road in the state of Washington there. He also started a mansion, but later decided to convert it into an art museum, which was not finished until after his death.

Much of Hill's attention was devoted to advocating good roads in Washington, a task for which he created the Washington State Good Roads Association. He persuaded the state legislature to create a state highway department, and the University of Washington to establish the United States' first chair in highway engineering.

Hill constructed two notable monuments. The replica of Stonehenge, at Maryhill, commemorates the dead of World War I, while the Peace Arch, at the U.S.–Canadian 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 after him.