Samuel Hill was a local businessman who earned most of his fortune through utilities, railroads, and investments. One of his many civic passions was that of developing good roads that he declared as his religion. He and other prominent businessmen established the Good Roads Association on which he served as president. Through the Good Roads Movement the state highway department was created in 1905, the University of Washington established the first highway engineering program in 1907, and the American Congress of Road Builders was organized for the Alaska-Yukon-Pacific Exposition in 1909. However, Hill is most well known for the Maryhill mansion that he had built in Goldendale on the Columbia River. Named after his wife, Mary, who moved away from Seattle with their two children in 1902 and lived in several homes he provided for them, but never in Seattle, he discontinued building it in 1917 and it was completed after his death in 1931. He is also known for the two monuments he had built, the Peace Arch by the American-Canadian border near Blaine, Washington and the Stonehenge replica near the Maryhill mansion which commemorates fallen WWI soldiers from Klickitat County. Hill is shown walking in Seattle with other businessmen on January 15, 1927.

Handwritten on image: Hill. Caption information source: HistoryLink.org. Date photograph was filed at the Seattle Post-Intelligencer (date of photograph and file date may differ by a month or more): January 15, 1927.

• Subjects (LCTGM): Business people--Washington (State)--Seattle
• People: Hill, Samuel, 1857-1931