Louis W. Hill

Louis Warren Hill (May 19, 1872– April 27, 1948), was an American railroad executive. He was the president and board chairman of the Great Northern Railway, which served a substantial area of the Upper Midwest, the northern Great Plains, and Pacific Northwest.

Life Family Roots The third of James J. Hill and Mary Theresa ( Mehegan) Hill's ten children, Louis Warren Hill was born in St. Paul, Minnesota in 1872. He, along with his older brother James, was schooled at home before attending Phillips Exeter Academy in New Hampshire. He failed to complete the ancient languages requirement for acceptance to Yale University, and instead attended the university’s Sheffield Scientific School.

He began working for his father at the Great Northern Railway Company immediately after graduation and began pursuit of his own ultimately extremely successful investments in iron mining in northeastern Minnesota. While the eldest Hill son James had been groomed as their father’s successor, Louis’s capable management of a Great Northern extension over the Rockies in 1901 moved him into position as heir to the Hill business empire. (May 19, 1902 – April 6, 1995), Maud Van Cortlandt (June 1, 1903 – October 15, 1997), James Jerome II (March 2, 1905 – November 21, 1972; a documentary filmmaker), and Cortlandt Taylor (March 31, 1906 – March 21, 1978).

The family traveled the United States and the world and spent much of their time at North Oaks Farm, just north of St. Paul, where Louis built a chalet-style retreat. In 1910, Louis began purchasing orange groves in the Redlands, California and considerable acreage at Pebble Beach on the Monterey Peninsula, a development by the Pacific Improvement Company designed to attract the wealthy. The family enjoyed the mild Central California climate and often wintered there. He had a summer home built in Waterton by Doug Oland, one of the principal builders for the Prince of Wales Hotel. Neither he nor his family were ever known to occupy the residence. The home was completed in August 1928 and renamed Northland Lodge after it was acquired by Hugh Black and Earl and Bessie Hacking in 1948.