What Happened to Railroad Tycoon James Hill’s Mansion?
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- เผยแพร่เมื่อ 15 ธ.ค. 2022
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Imagine being one of the wealthiest people to have ever lived in the United States, what would the inside of your house look like?
Location: Saint Paul MN
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Credits:
Public Domain Photos from: Library of Congress, Wikipedia, Minnesota Historical Society
CC2.0(creativecommons.org/licenses/...) Photos from: Teemu008, Minnesota Historical Society
CC3.0(creativecommons.org/licenses/...) Photos from: McGhiever
Music from: Epidemic Sound
Assets from: Envato Elements Unlimited
Glad to see the house was preserved and that it's now open to the public.
Sounds like a very loving family. So nice to learn they spent their lives together, in their home and that their children stayed nearby.
Words can not say how thankful I am when these amazing mansions are saved
This was very interesting! I used to live near this house and would drive by it all the time. I've toured it a couple times and attended a Christmas concert there one time, it was very fun. Another interesting MN house would be the Glensheen mansion in Duluth. That one has many of its original furnishings. Also an interesting story.
Also The Alexander Ramsey house is a wonderful house, compleate with all the family things . Much more homey while being grand
@@stevenwilson7768 Yes, that would be a fun one too!
So glad to see this amazing house survived and is intact to this day.
I’ve been here many times very nice home. The people maintaining it and showcasing it do an excellent job..they have regular organ concerts there.
JH used to stay with our family in NW Minnesota when he was scouting the area for his railroad near Climax, Minnesota. The bed he slept in is now at The Smithsonian. A town just a few miles south was named Caledonia. JH arrived late into town one night to the only hotel. He asked the clerk if he could bring his dogs into the lobby so as to stay out of the cold and was told no. JH responded saying that the town would die as he would move his railroad further east, which he did. All that is left of the town is a cemetary. Caledonia was located in Polk County along the Red River.
Great story! My family actually has a story somewhat like that but it was my great-great-grandparents at the time and in India!
So avoid saying no to someone wanting to get his dogs in from the cold.. you never know what power they may wield!
Another example of JH's spite is in Wayzata, Minn., where the RR track runs between the main downtown street and the shore of Lake Minnetonka. The trains still run through the heart of this posh, old money suburb. I don't remember what the disagreement was about.
Isn't there hundreds of people who still live in that town today? Or is there more then one "Caledonia" in MN?
See someone already commented, house still existing & open to the public, It is massive, Yet Gorgeous.
All of the woodwork is beautiful, but that staircase is spectacular. Excellent video.
I liked reading about Hill and his good friend Leonard Jerome (Churchill's American grandfather) telling NY society members to keep quiet during performances at the Metropolitan Opera.
Just purchased an old Great Northern Railway depot we are giving new life as a pie shop... Our entire signature line is after the engines first and foremost, the Empire Builder. Thank you so much for this video peek inside the mansion. It's been a blast learning about Hill in the research I've been doing.
How awesome is that! Best wishes for you in this endeavor. I love seeing adaptive reuse for continuing the legacies of older and antiquated buildings. Very creative!
I love the fact that this house is still standing in it's original beauty!
For such a mammoth, fortress like structure, the inside appears fairly light filled & airy. It is a beautiful home, that radiates family.
Thank you for finally doing something in St Paul I would love to see more on Summit Avenue I grew up down there and it's fun to see these houses
I live in MA; but from what I've seen over the years, Summit Ave would make another great "Millionaire's Row" video.
In the end the question is often "which room do you like the most?". I'm going to be the oddball here and say the laundry room and kitchen areas.
Without sounding pompous I actually grew up in an ancient British manor house which was lucky to have survived because it barely had electricity on the first two floors and not on the third and you could actually find chamber pots in cabinets in some of the upper bedrooms. But next to the boiler room in the basement areas was a drying room just as one sees here! Sheets were also hung on lines in the basement as hanging on outside lines would be déclassé.
So I am not as impressed by the parlors and the dining rooms as I've seen many... from the Hudson River Estates to San Simeon and obviously Europe where I grew up. But one rarely sees the behind the scenes the servants areas, the kitchens, butler's pantries etc. Those are what intrigue me!
How wonderful that this house still stands and can be used in a practical way bringing tourism and paying for its own upkeep. People always complain about 5th Avenue mansions that have long since been razed but that's just practicality. The land is worth more than the house and these houses were built by the tons in the Gilded age.
Thanks for another great video!
I am also intrigued by the servants quarters in these big old houses. It is where you often see enclosed, winding stairs, which I absolutely love. I also love all the nooks and crannies that they seem to have.
I totally understand. I remember the "laundry room" of my grandparents' house where the maids would work, the butler pantry between the kitchen and dining room, the back staircase to the maids' quarters and so much more! Even the milk with paper caps. LOL I still have my grandmother's Baker furniture from the early 1900s.
@@megfuchs9425 I love that you brought up the staircases! As children we were not allowed to go up and down the main, incredibly beautiful, staircase. We were to use the servants stairs and in all honesty we didn't mind because they sometimes switched from floor to floor so you would come up to one level run over and then go up another level. They were steeper and therefore our little feet were able to run up at incredibly high speeds.
It was on these landings you could actually see the remnants of the original call boards which indicated which room staff were being summoned.
It was an incredibly wonderful maze to grow up in!
@@jennycallaghan1914 with few exceptions I've always lived in pre-war here in the states... a Victorian in San Francisco, a 1906 classic six in Manhattan.. I adore Butler's Pantries.
I have witnessed (and it absolutely kills me) people that go in and gut anything from a bungalow to a mansion and remove all of these pantries and built-ins to provide that "open space" that people seem to think Americans still love.
I just know in 50 years it's going to be reversed and people are going to have to try to assimilate the original Butler's pantries and they'll never match the quality, beveled glass, the brass pulls Etc.
@@IntriguedLioness I am envious that you grew up in that house! I would have loved it.
You should do a vlog on Summit Avenue, where the James J. Hill House stands. It's one of the few remaining intact "Millionaire's Row."
I live only a few blocks away from this place. Truly a beautiful house and location overlooking St Paul downtown.
What an absolutely beautiful home. Glad it's still there and available to the public - good way to understand homes and living in late 1800's. Would love to tour it sometime. Great job of reporting.
Thankfully this gem was saved! Next visit to the twin cities I will let you know what will be my favorite part of this treasure, Ken! Your stories and photos are so interesting! You've been keeping busy❤️
I so enjoyed touring this home. It's been probably 15 years and I'd love to go again, as I've only become more interested in older architecture over the years
Aaah, thank you, Ken, for highlighting this Gem as I just mentioned last week. Beautiful! Terrific recap of a magnificent turn of the century home still standing and preserved for the public. St. Paul and Summit Avenue can be commended for such restoration. I lived two blocks away from The Hill mansion whilst attending college in the 80’s and relished my Summit Avenue strolls and bike rides. Still one of my favorite memories. Living in Los Angeles is quite nice, but nothing beats my St. Paul days.
So nice to see a house saved, restored and preserved! This is the best one yet!❤
Rest in powerful peace 🙏
James Jerome Hill
16 September 1838 ~
29 May 1916⚘
I have been to this house at least five times and I love it more and more every time I go.
This must be some of the best Millwork ever created in this country. Surpassing even the castles of Europe. I am so glad it wasn't thrown away like so many others. It must truly be the jewel of St. Paul. All those living in the city should thank their parents for being so level headed and future thinking to have saved her. Now she can be the dream that she was intended to be.
Very nice looking inside and out. And that it still exist is fantastic. Great episode as always!
Great eoisode!!!!!!! 💟
When I was about 6, we took the train from DC to Bellingham, Washington to meet up with my father, who was stationed at an Air Force base on the Canadian border. It was a long train trip and one of my earliest memories. I never forgot the mountain goat used on many items on the Great Northern Railway. About a year ago, I found a pair of GNR earrings on ebay. I guess people wonder why I wear earrings from a railroad company and with a little white goat on them, but I know.
@@218girl I assume it would be either Minot AFB, or Grand Forks AFB. I grew up and spent most of my life in Minot. I remember the Great Northern railway well.
As a Minnesotan I love our state landmarks and this is definitely one of the most beautiful, you can walk down the street to the beautiful cathedral or the interior of the house it’s gorgeous, it’s honestly breathtaking in my opinion because I appreciate the history and detail put in to it and the artwork it’s beautiful. I love history and it’s so fun and crazy and exciting to think what the house was like in its prime. Gosh I’m 22 and I’m talking like I want to marry this house.
The music room with the beautiful pipe organ!!
I've had the pleasure of going there for a tour. It is very impressive.
This house I have toured. The entry hall is so impressive, long, huge, it kind of blew my mind. It made me start seeing what would be considered a hallway in a completely new light, as they are really rooms. At least in this huge house it was. It’s a beautiful house to tour and just driving down Summit Ave. is a real treat for anyone interested in 19th century architecture.
obviously a close loving family, it's a beautiful house
Fascinating story! 😲😊👏👏👏👏👏👏👏👏👏👏👍👍 That house could have told such stories of presidents, governors and celebrities who visited there 😊 The luxury inside was overwhelming 😲😊 I’m so glad its still there and open to the public…its…American history and heritage 😊🇺🇸
Love this home and I used to go to college down the street, a magical part of St Paul ✨️
I kind of remember going to a school field trip there in 4th grade.
I have been lucky enough to tour this home twice. It is absolutely magnificent.
Hi Ken, great video, just for clarification a pipe organ has pipes and may have bellows or a pump to supple air to the many pipes.
I’ve been in this house twice. First visit was in a guided tour. Second time was a massive yoga class, I was in the near the giant pipe organ room. My husband’s aunt lived and worked at the James J Hill house when she lived as a catholic nun. Very beautiful home, It is restored and cared for. Accessible to the public. Locals are very proud of this landmark of the city.
I like the basement , glad to see the house still stands fabulous place 👌
My late wife and I were married at the nearby University Club - known to be frequented back in the day by writer F. Scott Fitzgerald.
The Hill mansion truly is a marvel inside and out. As friends would say even when visiting much smaller Tudor or Craftsman style houses in the St Paul, Minneapolis area "a small forest must have fallen to create all this woodwork".
With the Hill house, it's on an entirely different level, as a good sized section of old growth forest did fall. So we should do everything we can to preserve these gems of history. Because once gone, they can never be replaced 😉
This channel and Big Old Boats, are my two favourite channels. The subject matter is very well researched and delivered beautifully. Both narrators have beautiful voices and an absolutely outstanding grasp of the English language. Pronunciation, tempo, inflection etc are just lovely. It’s a pleasure listening to both.
Ken, I could listen to you talk about cement ☺️
🙏☺️ thank you for all your efforts to deliver such quality content. Well done 🙌❤️
So happy the house survives!!!
He built another mansion next door for his son when he got married and my husband did the restoration of it for the current owners over a period of several years.
I used to be a tour guide for bus tours Mpls/St Paul for German speaking visitors. Summit Ave was one of the highlights.
Most of the mansions there are preserved. Beautiful street.
Wonderful lived-in house.
If you can visit, this house is one of the most beautiful homes in our country. Fun fact: the dining room ceiling is gilded
My wife and I, at the suggestion of our daughter, who was stationed ar GFAFB, at the time, she and our son in law took us over to see this magnificent place. My wife and I moved to GF area of ND where I was driving a semi truck throughout the winter to supplement my retirement. After getting layed off in mid April our daughter organized this adventure. After touring the house, we spent the night in the round house motel, constructed inside the former round house of James Hills' rail road. That's pretty cool too! The rails that the engines and cars rolled on, to come into the facility to be repaired, are still cemented into the ground floor. For out of towners I highly recommend spending the night here.
The pipe organ is awesome!!
Awesome! Minnesota native, thanks for this one.
What an absolutely stunning place 😍!!! Beautifully designed, and decorated to last many years, if not centuries!!! I am so very pleased that this particular house is been preserved! It should be, with its excellent quality design and workmanship. Thank you again. 😊
It was interesting to see the downstairs areas. Glad this beautiful home is still intact.
Oh yeah! This place is a must see if you're in town. The tour guides are great!
My favorite room is his office, which wasn't shown.
A masterpiece of architecture.
When asked how he became so successful, Hill answered, "Work, hard work, and more work." He was a hard man in business, but we can see he loved his family. The house seems warm and attractive in the color photos.
Every time I'm halfway through one of these I brace up in dread anticipation that the house ended up getting demolished.
The second floor has been turned into offices with changes modern codes require. The main & lower floors are wonderful. There are details like a safe(s) for silver built into the dining room along with dumb waiters for food delivery. Prom & wedding photos can be taken on the grand staircase.
I have toured this home many times in my life. When the church owned when I was very young. Then latter in life. For whatever reason those boilers were etched into my young mind. Though I could not remember where I had seen them or if they were real. Touring the home as an adult. It was a bit of a shock to see they were real. It’s a fantastic home to tour. Your video is spot on again Ken. Thank You.
One of my uncles played that pipe organ while he was a seminarian there.
Your voice is so positive and endearing. You put out a great product, video and audio. Well done, young man!
This is probably one of the coolest houses I’ve ever seen. I would like to make a trip to Saint Paul to see it. See you in the next installment.
Love the grand staircase!
THANKFULLY ANOTHER DAY, ANOTHER NON-DEMOLITION!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
I have been to that house -- I live in MN the tour is well worth the time
You can also take a train named for him Amtrak's "Empire Builder"
I love ALL your videos, great quality and so nicely narrated ❤
Very nice video. One correction is the pipe organ has 1000 hand made organ pipes not bellows.
Love the dinning room
It is nice to see it saved a lot of these old mansions are so expensive to maintain they end up getting razed that was the case of the Dodge mansion in Michigan
Thx for another great vid.
We've been to this house and enjoyed the tour. I really loved the pipe organ but felt the skylights almost made the room too bright compared to the rest of the house.
Thanks!
Another WoW!!!
Masterpieces. Today I call the architecture Soviet Union.
5:04 - the light fixture seems to be a dual electric/gas one - for when the power went out?
I noticed you did not mention the home they built next door for a family member (I forget what it is/was called, maybe Maryvail?). It was also given to the Catholic Church and later served as a covent & retreat center. It was said they were connected underground.
Geat that the house is saved. I ve got to go see it. The video is so short I thought for sure it was going to end bad with the place getting torn down!
In my mind, this is the most impressive of all the robber baron palaces. The economic inequality of those days produced more interesting artifacts than does today’s 0.1%.
There's a built in safe in the dining room for the silver. Local girls & brides pose for portraits in the stairway. The third floor is modern offices.
The permanence of these beautiful houses attest to the fact that we are a cheap, throwaway society that no longer cares about future generations that will never know of the people and history of the beginnings of our nation, much less the lack of government intrusion that we all seem to accept now.
Just remember how short life is and try not to worry about it. A common theme with these old houses is that the owners only lived in them for a short period of time before they died.
@@aaron___6014 That's not the point. The point I was making was the throwaway nature of our society and it's history, and the lack of quality and creativity in people's lives.
@@foghornleghorn262 I hear you. I've said the same thing myself, more than once.
Well, slavery was getting embarrassing. And women insisted on getting the vote. You may not like it, but times do change.
I just posted a positive comment... but the cynic in me has to say that I laughed when I saw the interior shots of the electrical ceiling lights.. is that the beginning of the infamous popcorn ceiling?!?
Perhaps it was a quick concealment after it was turned over to the Archdiocese?? But still... ech!
All of them !!!
They never spoke in the clip about the solarium or indoor gardens that are shown so prominently in the exterior photos. Ive driven past this house several times while in high school in the twin cities, this house is the largest along state street and is very imposing when you drive by it. Its much larger and the stone is very dark on the exterior adding to the domineering posture of the property.
Its pretty massive.
It's on submit Ave, and it doesn't have interior gardens or a solarium. What you're seeing is the art gallery with the organ.
@@aaron___6014 oh yes, Summit.
I use to have a book of houses from Summit Ave. This house was the largest one there.
@@superdougie10 its quite the street. Mansions for miles. There was a Minnesota public tv special on the people who pretty much saved the area and the houses in the 70s and 80s from crime and demolition. Have you seen that?
Happy it’s still with us, can’t help but wish 7:20 Tiffany had graced it with his genius
Nice 👍
You HAVE to check out the mansions of E.W. Marland in Ponca city, Oklahoma. He was once one of the richest men in the world who owned 1/10th of all the worlds oil. He built the Marland mansion which was known as the palace on the prairie. The story of his life straight out of a gatsby type film. Check it out. You won’t be disappointed!
I wish I could have known this part of my family. 😢
I've wanted to tour this house for years. Maybe next summer.
Some suggestions of homes in Minnesota:
LeDuc estate in Hastings
Mayowood in Rochester
Dr. William J. Mayo house in Rochester
The huge chateau-like mansion in Tuxedo Park, NY, Chastellux, was built by the daughter of one of those St. Paul millionaires who's house is still standing.
I cant remember if she was the daughter of this guy or someone else?
It would be very cool if This House could do an episode on Chastellux, and/or the other Tuxedo Park mansion that was involved in one of WW2? secret projects. I think both mansions are well over 20,000 sq. ft.?
If he was born anywhere in Ontario, Canada in 1830, he most likely moved NORTH to live in St. Paul, Minnesota. It's a weird trick or geography that the majority of Canada's population lives south of Minneapolis.
You'd need a dozen employees to keep you company in such a behemoth. It really does stick out as the biggest house on the block. But all the houses in that neighborhood are spectacular. St Paul really has done a good job of preserving its historic buildings.
This might seem strange, but the things I remember most from the tour were the modcons, like the drying room. It's such an amazing house, it's a lot to take in during the tour. I recall it feeling quite grand inside with spacious rooms with some impressive views.
But something I noticed in the photos is that the house seems to lack intimacy. It's pretty, but lacks the warmth of a real home.
I've seen photographs of Nicolas and Alexandra's private family rooms in one of their palaces. The rooms were intimate feeling, filled with little framed photos, icons, ceramic pieces and assorted l'objet d'arte. It looked as if each piece had been curated personally by the Tsarina. It looked warm and lived in without being messy or cluttered.
I would assume after decades in the house the Hills had acquired many personal objects that weren't necessarily famous works of art too, but I just don't recall seeing those details of their lives during the tour or in the photos. That's difficult for curators to reproduce so many years after the family had been gone from the home and their personal belongings have been disbursed far and wide over the intervening 100 years.
To be clear, the James J. Hill mansion tour is undeniably worth the time and price of admission. If you haven't done so already, leave yourself some time to tour the neighborhood.
While you're in MN, check out the American Swedish Institute in MPLS and Glensheen Mansion on Lake Superior in Duluth.
The Hill house looks cold because there isn't anything of the Hills' life and possessions in the place. The only remaining original furnishing is that large dining table and its 22 chairs. Glensheen is a wonder because it's still furnished as if the Congdons still lived there.
I live directly across the street facing the American Swedish Inst. It, unfortunately, is another old mansion with few of its original furnishings--only the dining room is furnished, including the tableware.
Imagine using these types of classical properties as schools for war-torn and orphaned children. They would hopefully find another life and adventure in houses such as these. Of course,without the adult abuse.
Wowwwwww
He fired Tiffany. If he only knew.
Finally
the house is beautiful, it's just to bad there aren't a lot of original furniture in it. at one time the house had the biggest private power house in he u.s. until henry ford built fairlane.
I'd hate to have to clean those chimneys
It's ironic how the old British aristocracy in the US portrayed the Irish as lazy and slovenly but once given an equal opportunity became some of the wealthiest families in America.
👍
They're on tiktok
$35 an hour? I could afford that.
Sent his wife to be to finishing school? What a Svengali creep!!He must have been a control freak. So much for loving someone just the way they are!