Hill House 11/7/05

Monday night we went to the James J Hill house in St. Paul for a concert. James J Hill was a railroad "pioneer" who started the Great Northern railroad that stretched across the states in the late 1800s. As a sign of their wealth, the family built this mansion. Here they raised 10 kids. They also hosted numerous parties. And vacationed at many of their other homes in the US and Canada. The early "american dream."

The concert was held in the music room. This is the same place Mr. Hill hosted concerts when he was alive. He also welcomed local artists to display their works in this room. Today there is art from Mr. Hill's grandson, Jerome. Jerome was a musician/composer, painter and photographer.

The concert waswonderful, as I'm sure Hiroe has mentioned. Here's a photo of the room where we listened to the music. Yes,that's a Steinway.

































We also enjoyed dessert and champagne after the concert to celebrate 20 years that the concerts have been performed by this group a the house. A tour was included as well and it was cool to see how the house was built. The little details were the most interesting, like how Mr. Hill rejected window designs from Tiffanys, and how air for the pipe organ in the music room was manually generated by servants in the basement.