James J. Hill House

A National Historic Landmark. Listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1966.

From the record

“Hill House is the former mansion of railroad magnate James J. It is located in Saint Paul, Minnesota, United States, towards the eastern end of Summit Avenue near the Cathedral of Saint Paul.”
Wikipedia article James J. Hill House, CC BY-SA 4.0.

One of 134 National Register listings published here for Ramsey County · listed in 1966 · category: Building · a National Historic Landmark.

Sources: the Wikipedia article · the case file at the National Archives · the National Register database, National Park Service

The listing

National Historic Landmark. The highest federal designation, held by about 2,600 places in the country against roughly 100,000 Register listings.
What is counted as historic. The nomination lists 1 building as contributing to the listing.
Still standing. The Park Service records this property as extant.
Listed as. Hill, James J., House - the National Register files a house under its owner's surname.
Address. 240 Summit Ave., St. Paul, 55102
When was it listed? October 1966
Category. building
City. St. Paul city
Architectural style. Richardsonian Romanesque
Architect. Peabody and Stearns
National Register reference number. 66000405 - the number the National Park Service assigned this property when it was listed, and the key its nomination file is catalogued under at the National Archives.

The ground it stands on

13,839 words

The chapter on St. Paul City in HIstory of Ramsey County and the CIty of St. Paul, published 1881 names St. Paul. This is what it says, exactly as the scans read.

May 18th, 1869. a formal call was extended to Rey. George A. Howard of Catskill, New York. which was declined by him after a visit to St. Paul. January 28th. 1869, the corner stone of the new chureh building was laid with appropriate ceremonies. and in December, the basement was ready for occupancy. the first public service held in it being the Christmas anniversary of the Sunday school. The next day, Sabbath, the first regular church service was held in the basement.

Passage source: HIstory of Ramsey County and the CIty of St. Paul, published 1881.

The necessity of choosing a pastor was apparent. and a call to the Rey. David R. Breed was | ordered. IIe soon after accepted, and in May, 1870, began his duties. In October, 1870, Mr. Breed was formally ordained to the ministry and installed as pastor of the church by the Presbytery of St. Paul.

Passage source: HIstory of Ramsey County and the CIty of St. Paul, published 1881.

Machine-read from a century-old scan, so expect the errors a machine makes: misspelled names, dropped words, stray characters.

Read the whole chapter on St. Paul City - 13,839 words on its settlement, mills, schools and churches.

Fires near this property

3 since 1996

Regional context, not property-specific evidence. The federal wildfire occurrence database lists 3 fires within 5 miles of James J. Hill House between 1996 and 2020, burning about 2 acres in total. None started naturally. 1 was recorded as arson. Distance is straight-line from the map coordinates, so a fire counted here may appear on a neighbouring settlement's page as well.

Reported cause	Fires
Missing data/not specified/undetermined	1
Railroad operations and maintenance	1
Arson/incendiarism	1

The most recent of them, most recent first, with the day each was reported and the service that recorded it.

Date	Cause	Size	Reported by	Name on the report
13 September 1996	Missing data/not specified/undetermined	under an acre	Minnesota Department of Natural Resources	not named
1 April 2020	Arson/incendiarism	1.2 acres	Minnesota Department of Natural Resources	SAND DUNES
21 October 2000	Railroad operations and maintenance	under an acre	Minnesota Department of Natural Resources	not named

Every fire recorded in Ramsey County

Mines and quarries near this property

3 within 5 miles

Regional context, not property-specific evidence. The federal mineral resources record lists 3 workings within 5 miles of James J. Hill House: 1 occurrence, 1 producer, 1 past producer. 1 still produces. What was taken out: Clay, Kaolin. Distance is straight-line from the map coordinates, so a quarry counted here may appear on a neighbouring settlement's page as well.

Site	Commodity	Status	Recorded
Twin City Brick Co. Clay Pit	Kaolin	Producer	Kaolinite
Dakota County Clay Deposit	Clay	Occurrence
Twin City Brick Co Pit	Clay	Past Producer

Every working recorded in Ramsey County

Map coverage status

No historic map-sheet match is published for this property yet. That does not mean no map exists. This record needs a coordinate-quality review before it can be joined to a sheet boundary. Browse the county's mapped places while that work is pending.

Listed places nearby

6 within 8 miles

Other National Register properties close enough to walk or drive between, ordered by distance from this one. Both positions come from the same geocoding pass that matched these properties to their map sheets.

Property	Distance	Listed
St. Paul Cathedral-Catholic	0.1 miles	1974
Hope Engine Company No. 3	0.3 miles	2020
Justus Ramsey Stone House	0.3 miles	1975
Irvine Park Historic District	0.3 miles	1973
John M. Armstrong House	0.3 miles	1983
Alexander Ramsey House	0.3 miles	1969

Sources for this property

National Archives record	The nomination case file for reference 66000405 in Record Group 79.
Wikipedia article	Community-written account of this property, licensed CC BY-SA.
Ramsey County	All 134 listed properties in this county.

Provenance

Listing record. National Park Service National Register of Historic Places, listed-properties dataset, current to 2026-05-22.
Map join. Address geocoded through the United States Census geocoder, then tested against the published boundary of every sheet in the USGS Historical Topographic Map Collection.
How this page is made. Listing fields come from federal records; map-sheet coverage is a labelled coordinate-to-boundary calculation, not a source-field claim.
Wildfire. Short, Karen C. 2022. Spatial wildfire occurrence data for the United States, 1992-2020 [FPA_FOD_20221014]. 6th Edition. Fort Collins, CO: Forest Service Research Data Archive. https://doi.org/10.2737/RDS-2013-0009.6 Collected with United States Government funding and usable without additional permissions or fees.
Mines and quarries. USGS Mineral Resources Data System (MRDS) https://mrdata.usgs.gov/mrds/ A work of the United States government, no copyright under 17 U.S.C. 105.