Bertram Charles Hill was born in Bedminster, Bristol, England on April 27, 1881. Hill graduated from the Merchant Venturer’s Technical College in Bristol and then immigrated to the United States. He worked for a brief period on the East Coast before moving to Dallas, Texas in 1905. In Dallas, Bertram Hill formed a partnership with architect C.D. Hill, his first major position being that of project consultant for the newly proposed Adolphus Hotel and also the new City Hall. He continued his work in Dallas as a draftsman for C.D. Hill & Company as well as other firms such as R. H. Hunt Company until 1914.
Hill married Pearle Sammons Avery of Dallas on May 18, 1911. Together they had two children, Bertram Hill Jr. (b.1917) and Hester Pearle Hill (b.1922). Hill and his family lived in England for a short while during World War I, according to the Dallas street directory and the account by Hill’s daughter Hester. He may have worked as "Inspector or Purchasing Agent for the British Government" during that time. A letter of recommendation was sent to the British Ambassador in Washington, D.C. on his behalf by Dallas Mayor, W.M. Holland, in which Hill was described as having "a good reputation in this community… sober, industrious, intelligent, and honest." The Hill family moved back to the United States in 1920, where he was naturalized as a U.S. citizen in 1929.
Hill opened his business as an independent Dallas architect in 1921. According to blueprints from the 1940s, fellow Dallas architects W. E. White Jr. and J. G. Farmer both worked with Hill as draftsmen and enjoyed a close relationship with his family. J. G. Farmer married Hill’s daughter Hester in 1946.
Bertram Hill is known today for his integration of the Georgian and English styles of architecture into the Texas residential home during the 1920s, 1930s and 1940s. He designed residences on Swiss Avenue and Gaston Avenue and in the Lakewood and Highland Park areas; a great number of those still stand today and are registered with Dallas’ Historic Preservation League. Many of the designs included in the DeGolyer collection were commissioned, but Hill apparently designed a number of houses on speculation for builders as well. Some of these plans are also part of the Dines, Kraft & Hexter collection at the Dallas Public Library, which contains documents and plans for homes built in the Lakewood area, at least two of which are attributed to Hill.
Several homes designed by Hill that were built in what is now "downtown" Dallas may have been demolished to make room for the growing commercial area. There are also important Dallas buildings that he worked on as a consultant with a firm where the firm itself was credited but not Hill himself, i.e. the Adolphus Hotel (completed 1912) and the new Dallas City Hall (completed 1914) for C.D. Hill & Company Hill also designed and built the Melrose Apartments (now Melrose Hotel), the original Fair Park Coca-Cola building, and the original Mrs. Baird’s Bakery building.
In addition to the residential homes, apartments and duplexes, Hill did a considerable amount of commercial work for different companies, the two largest in the collection being structures built for Pure Ice & Cold Storage Company and Morton Foods. He also designed and oversaw construction on the original Dallas and Lakewood Country Club buildings as well as several churches.
Hill designed buildings in a variety of styles. While he is known for the traditional, grand Georgian style homes of Swiss Avenue, he enjoyed using the modern styles known as "googie" or "coffee house modern" in certain commercial and residential plans. Hill died in 1977 at the age of 96.
References:
Dines, Kraft & Hexter Collection in Texas/Dallas History of the Dallas Public Library. This is a Dallas Public Library collection.
McAlester, Virginia Savage, Winters, Willis Cecil and Prudence Mackintosh.
McDonald, William L.
Approved plans from the files of E. Bedford Jones, registered architect, NA7127. J66.
The Bertram C. Hill collection consists of documents, prints and drawings of Dallas architect Bertram C. Hill. It includes sketches, concept drawings, hand drawn technical plans, blueprints, photographs and prints of his buildings. It also contains his business records for many years (although it is difficult to tell if they are complete records), as well as many personal documents, letters of recommendation from the firms he worked for, and other materials. The drawings and blueprints include both his residential and commercial ventures in and around North Texas.
Several projects illustrate the architectural progression from preliminary drafts to revised drafts to a final copy. Not all of the projects are this complete however; some are fragmented or simply unlabeled sketches that may have never made it off the drawing board.
The collection is organized into 3 series:
Cloonan, F.A.
Van Frank, J.R.
Yantis, Gary.
Collection is open for research use.
Permission to publish materials must be obtained from the Director of the DeGolyer Library.
It is the responsibility of the user to obtain copyright authorization.
This collection is indexed under the following terms in the Southern Methodist University Libraries' online catalog. Researchers desiring related materials may search the catalog using these terms.
Bertram C. Hill architectural plans, papers and other materials, DeGolyer Library, Southern Methodist University.
Gift, Hester Hill Farmer, 1977.
Lindsay Wellington and Laura Irick, 2009-2010.
Lindsay Wellington and Laura Irick, 2009-2010.
Edited by Anne E. Peterson and Ada Negraru, 2010.
Lara Corazalla, 2010.
This series contains documents, prints and photographs related to Bertram C. Hill’s life and business.