| Hill Military Academy | |
|---|---|
Main building in 1903 |
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| Active | 1901–1959 |
| Type | Military academy College prep |
| Location | Portland, Oregon, USA [1] |
Hill Military Academy was a private, College preparatory military academy in Portland in the U.S. state of Oregon. Opened in 1901, it was a leading military boarding school in the Pacific Northwest. Originally located in Northwest Portland, it later moved to Rocky Butte where it remained until it closed in 1959. The school was a party to the Pierce v. Society of Sisters U.S. Supreme Court case.
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The academy's founder Joseph Wood Hill was born in Westport, Connecticut, on May 28, 1856, and was raised in Connecticut.[2] He attended the Selleck school in Norwalk before enrolling at Yale University where he earned a bachelor of arts degree in 1878.[2] Hill then moved west to Oregon where he was hired as the headmaster of the Bishop Scott grammar school in Portland in 1879.[2] In 1881, while still serving as headmaster, Hill graduated from the Willamette University College of Medicine with a Doctor of Medicine.[2] The grammar school became Bishop Scott Academy in 1887, with Hill becoming principal that year of the expanded school, serving until 1901.[2]
In 1901, Hill left Bishop Scott Academy and founded the Hill Military Academy on Marshall Street in Portland.[2] John W. Gavin served as the vice principal and headmaster at this time.[2] The school was incorporated in 1908, and Hill’s oldest son Joseph A. became the vice president of the school that year.[2] The son took over as manager in 1910, with Major G. C. Von Egloffstein taking over as headmaster. Joseph Wood Hill remained as principal until at least 1911.[2]
In 1922, Oregon voters passed the Compulsory Education Act, an initiative supported by the Ku Klux Klan as an anti-Catholic measure that required attendance in public schools.[3] Hill Academy and a society that ran several Catholic schools both sued the state to prevent the enactment of the law on First Amendment grounds, and won in federal district court.[3] On appeal to the United States Supreme Court, that court upheld the injunction against the law in Pierce v. Society of Sisters.[4]
In 1931, the school moved to a new campus on Rocky Butte in eastern Portland.[5][6] The school’s enrollment then declined, and the school closed in 1959.[6][7]
Hill Military Academy’s original campus was located in a residential area in northwest Portland.[2] The campus consisted of two buildings, the main building and an armory.[2] The two-story armory measured 50 by 100 feet and included a drill hall and workshops.[2] Hill’s main building was a four-story structure with battlements on the exterior wall, and in general designed in the Scots Baronial Style.[2] This building housed the boarding students of the academy.[2]
Students at Hill wore uniforms and attended college preparatory classes as well as classes in the military department.[2] The school had both boarding students and day class enrollees.[5] Summer courses were held at camps held on the Oregon Coast or in the mountains.[2] The school was considered a pioneer in military education in the Pacific Northwest.[5]