Los
Angeles County
Biographies
LOUIS CLARENCE HILL
For nearly twenty years Louis C.
Hill has practiced successfully as a consulting engineer in Los Angeles and
before locating here he had become nationally known in his profession by reason
of his achievements in connection with reclamation work in the west and
southwest. He was born in Ann Arbor,
Michigan, February 22, 1865, a son of Alva Thomas and Frances (Bliss) Hill, and
was reared and educated in his native city.
In 1886 he received the B. S. degree in civil engineering from the
University of Michigan, which he re-entered in 1889, winning the B. S. degree
in electrical engineering from that institution in 1890, and in 1911 was
awarded the honorary degree of Master of Engineering.
Mr. Hill was assistant engineer for
the Duluth, Redwing & Southern Railroad in 1887-88
and during the summer of 1887 was also connected with the St. Paul office of
the United States Engineer Corps in a similar capacity. In 1888 he became division engineer of the
Great Northern Railroad, with headquarters at St. Paul. Leaving that city he went to Golden, where he
was professor of hydraulic and electrical engineering in the Colorado School of
Mines from 1890 to 1903. He was engineer
for the United States Geological Survey, in charge of the Roosevelt Dam in
Arizona, during 1903 and 1904. In
January, 1905, he entered the United States Reclamation Service as supervising
engineer and was placed in charge of all the work in the southern district,
including Arizona, New Mexico, Southern California, Texas and Utah. In that connection one of his important
assignments was on the Salt River project, in which he had full charge of the
design and construction of the power canal, also the diversion dam and diversion
works at the head of the canal, and the location and construction of one
hundred forty-seven miles of mountain road.
In connection with Roosevelt Dam he had charge of the construction and
operation of the cement mill, the design and construction of the dam itself and
allied works, while he also supervised the construction and operation and
assisted in designing the power plant at Roosevelt.
In the spring of 1906 Mr. Hill took
general charge of the Yuma project and for a time supervised the construction of
Laguna Dam, which is built on the quicksand bottom of the Colorado River and
since completion has successfully withstood two unprecedented floods. He also had charge of the construction of the
very difficult inverted siphon under the Colorado River at Yuma. He was appointed a member of the American
commission on the division of the water of the Rio Grande between the United
States and Mexico and the division of the water of the Colorado River. In 1908 the Strawberry Valley (Utah) project
was added to the southern district under his supervision. He was consulting engineer and had general
charge of the design and construction of Elephant Butte Dam and of the
distribution system for the Rio Grande project.
On March 1, 1914, he became consulting engineer in special charge of the
famous Elephant Butte Dam on the Rio Grande River. He was a member of the board of engineers
which made the report to the city of Austin, Texas, on the plans for the
building of a new dam in the Colorado River of Texas. With the Reclamation Service he has been for
some time consulting engineer for the Hoover Dam, the Columbia Basin project
and the Los Angeles County Flood Control; also he was consulting engineer of
the Pine Flat Reservoir and dam at Fresno, the Madera Reservoir and dam on the
San Joaquin River, and for the contractor in the building of the Otay Dam in San Diego County. On the 1st of March, 1914, he
began practice in Los Angeles as a member of the firm of Quinton, Code &
Hill, and in 1930 the firm of Leeds & Barnard joined the organization. They are consulting engineers of high
standing, maintaining offices on the seventh floor of the Standard Oil Building
and have successfully handled many large development projects.
On the 26th of August,
1890, Mr. Hill was married to Miss Gertrude B. Rose, of Ann Arbor, Michigan,
and they have two children: Raymond A.,
associated with the firm; and Margaret H., wife of P. E. Simpson, of Los
Angeles. The family home is at 2144
Canyon Drive, Hollywood. Mr. Hill is a
Thirty-second Degree Scottish Rite Mason and a Shriner. He was a member of the jury of awards at the
World’s Columbian Exposition held in Chicago in 1893, and during the World War
was consulting engineer for the United States Army at Fort Kearney. His social contacts are largely made through
his identification with the Cosmos Club of Washington and the California Club
of Los Angeles. He is a member of the
American Forestry Association, the National Geographic Society, the American
Society of Civil Engineers, the Society of American Military Engineers and the
University of Michigan Union.
Transcribed by
V. Gerald Iaquinta.
Source: California of the South
Vol. III, by John Steven McGroarty, Pages 489-491, Clarke Publ.,
Chicago, Los Angeles, Indianapolis. 1933.
© 2012 V. Gerald Iaquinta.
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