Named for Thomas Clarkson, an English abolitionist.
His mother was noted suffragist Matilda Joslyn Gage.
He and Sophie Jewell were married June 1, 1885, at the Episcopal church at Aberdeen, DT.
T. Clarkson Gage's sister Maud was married to author L. Frank Baum.
===============================
Thomas Clarkson (1848-1938; known as Clarkson or Clarky) graduated as part of the first class at Cornell University in 1872 (Wagner 2003:2; Schwartz 2009:29). He joined father Henry's store as a partner before seeking his fortune in the Dakota Territory, leaving Fayetteville in 1881 for Aberdeen to set up a store with the Beard brothers, also of Fayetteville (NYS Census 1875; US Federal Census 1880; Schwartz 2009:117). Clarkson represented the financial interests of Matilda and Henry in the Dakota Territory, helping them invest in land as the territory was settled. He married Sophie Jewell, also from Fayetteville, in Dakota in 1885. Sophie and Clarkson had three children, only one of whom survived infancy. Matilda Jewell Gage was born on April 22, 1886, and died in 1986. She kept the letters from her Grandmother Gage to her parents and was Dr. Sally Roesch Wagner's main source of information for her beginning research on the life of Gage. Her younger sisters, Alice, born in 1891, and Dorothy, born in 1898, only lived for a few days and five months after birth, respectively. Baby Dorothy Gage was the namesake for Dorothy Gale of The Wizard of Oz, written by Clarkson's brother-in-law L. Frank Baum, who married youngest Gage child Maud.
SOURCE- https://escholarship.org/content/qt6h70n14q/qt6h70n14q_noSplash_a1a098b78d7422d827b3b5bf2d911dc3.pdf
=============================
Matilda Gage told me when she was young the Gage family lived on West Hill, but never divulged that her father was one of the neighborhood's founders. KG
THE SAGA OF WEST HILL
Soon after Aberdeen declared itself a city in 1881, people carved up the surrounding prairie, platting new neighborhoods all around the initial plat that became downtown. People flocked from all over the eastern states to make Aberdeen their home. This is true for the mercantile firm owners known as Beard, Gage & Beard, who are credited with developing a most mysterious land development in Aberdeen known as West Hill.
Many have heard the term "West Hill," however few probably know its origins, its footprint, and what it actually refers to.
Just where is "West Hill?" Well, it's out west, and it's Aberdeen's only discernible hill. As you travel on Sixth Avenue going west, as you pass by Lincoln Elementary and the Salvation Army, the grade starts to rise, peaking just past Steven Lust Automotive. West Hill rises 17 feet above Main Street. If you look at the map on the previous page you can see mapmaker W.P. Butler indicates the east edge of the hill.
The story of the West Hill housing development starts in the early 1800s with Thomas Clarkson Gage. According to articles from the Aberdeen Daily, he moved to South Dakota in 1881 from Fayetteville, New York, where he operated a merchandise business with his father. After moving to the city, he began looking for business partners to start his own merchandise operation. He met brothers Henry and Frank Beard and negotiations were made to start their Main Street store, then eventually their real estate firm, known as Beard, Gage & Beard.
Opening in March 1882, the business became the most well-established and profitable firm in the area. Beard, Gage & Beard are also credited with having the oldest merchandise establishment in Aberdeen.
Because of their already established business, Beard, Gage & Beard wanted to develop a prosperous housing development that would increase the number of resident lots in the booming city. They platted a 25-block development, not contiguous with existing plats, on top of a hill. This land development would be known as "West Hill," with the subtitle used in promotions, "Aberdeen's Only Rival City," presumably because it was not connected to Aberdeen. Beard, Gage & Beard were sure that it was to become the most successful development in the newly founded city.
The West Hill development can be found on the southwest part of town. It is now bordered by Twelfth Street to Fifteenth Street and from Sixth Avenue to Second Avenue. The West Hill development was considered desirable because of the land slope. The lots sold at the top of the hill were considered prime real estate because water could easily drain from the top of the hill down and didn't affect the homes' cellars. The area was also considered "strictly for residence," which promised future homeowners that no large businesses would be setting up shop in their backyard. This would soon cause problems for the development later on in its history.
Once announced in 1886, ads appeared in the local newspaper that anybody planning on moving to Aberdeen should very much consider purchasing a lot and build a home in West Hill. Because of very promising marketing, many prominent Aberdeen citizens began purchasing these lots, sold in quarter-block sections, and West Hill seemed like it was to become a very important housing development for the city
Very expensive mansions began to be built in West Hill, and it became an important site for many Aberdonians. Multiple articles from early publications, like the Aberdeen Daily, document that many of the people living in West Hill threw extravagant parties, whether it be birthdays or get-togethers with other people living in the neighborhood. In 1887 Beard, Gage & Beard built a sidewalk along Third Avenue from the Manitoba Depot (now Healthcare Plus Federal Credit Union) to West Hill. The stretch of sidewalk from downtown to West Hill was dubbed a promenade and labeled "Lover's Lane," as folks would take leisurely strolls through the neighborhood. Anybody who was anybody in Aberdeen wanted to live in West Hill, but, quickly, this mindset changed.
The West Hill development faced many problems in the late 1890s and into the new century. In 1894, Gage retired from the firm he created with the Beards. Due to the business's valuable merchandise and real estate, he still remained in close contact with the Beards and continued to help run the business and promote his developments, said earlier editions of the Aberdeen American News. Also during this time, many of the prominent Aberdeen citizens who built mansions in West Hill soon abandoned or moved the homes they built, one example being prominent Aberdeen resident, Will Foster.
Documented in the Aberdeen Weekly, Foster built his West Hill home in 1887 at the height of the development's excitement at the corner of Fourth Avenue and Thirteenth Street (Fifteenth Avenue in 1887). He moved to Aberdeen to start a family with his wife, an elocutioner who was one of the most well known in the country. Foster was the deputy register of deeds, auditor, and treasurer for Aberdeen for many years, and lived in West Hill until the late 1890s. He later moved to Chicago, where he became an executive in the Northwestern Railroad. Due to a series of unfortunate events, he returned to Aberdeen to bury his sister, who committed suicide.
Over the years, the entire area around and west of Lincoln Elementary School became known as West Hill by people who grew up in the west part of Aberdeen. However, another prominent and competitive development, known as Highland Park, was platted due south of, and a year or two after West Hill in 1888. Like its predecessor, many prominent Aberdeen citizens built lavish houses in the new, hip development. A man known as H.C. Jewett built a massive home at Ninth Avenue SE and Fifteenth Street S. but by the 1890s had moved it to the corner of Sixth Avenue and Jay Street. Highland Park suffered the same fate as West Hill. Neither could sustain their upscale image. Eventually, T.C. Gage changed his game and focused on selling individual lots, not quarter-block sized lots to folks of modest means. Even T.C. Gage left West Hill and built the small yellow and brown Victorian house that still stands at Kline Street, a few lots off Sixth Avenue, directly across the street where the library once stood.
SOURCE- https://aberdeenmag.com/2020/04/the-saga-of-west-hill/
NOTE- Excerpted
NOTE- The Gages bought and moved into the Kline Street house in 1920; it was about 33 years old at the time.
His mother was noted suffragist Matilda Joslyn Gage.
He and Sophie Jewell were married June 1, 1885, at the Episcopal church at Aberdeen, DT.
T. Clarkson Gage's sister Maud was married to author L. Frank Baum.
===============================
Thomas Clarkson (1848-1938; known as Clarkson or Clarky) graduated as part of the first class at Cornell University in 1872 (Wagner 2003:2; Schwartz 2009:29). He joined father Henry's store as a partner before seeking his fortune in the Dakota Territory, leaving Fayetteville in 1881 for Aberdeen to set up a store with the Beard brothers, also of Fayetteville (NYS Census 1875; US Federal Census 1880; Schwartz 2009:117). Clarkson represented the financial interests of Matilda and Henry in the Dakota Territory, helping them invest in land as the territory was settled. He married Sophie Jewell, also from Fayetteville, in Dakota in 1885. Sophie and Clarkson had three children, only one of whom survived infancy. Matilda Jewell Gage was born on April 22, 1886, and died in 1986. She kept the letters from her Grandmother Gage to her parents and was Dr. Sally Roesch Wagner's main source of information for her beginning research on the life of Gage. Her younger sisters, Alice, born in 1891, and Dorothy, born in 1898, only lived for a few days and five months after birth, respectively. Baby Dorothy Gage was the namesake for Dorothy Gale of The Wizard of Oz, written by Clarkson's brother-in-law L. Frank Baum, who married youngest Gage child Maud.
SOURCE- https://escholarship.org/content/qt6h70n14q/qt6h70n14q_noSplash_a1a098b78d7422d827b3b5bf2d911dc3.pdf
=============================
Matilda Gage told me when she was young the Gage family lived on West Hill, but never divulged that her father was one of the neighborhood's founders. KG
THE SAGA OF WEST HILL
Soon after Aberdeen declared itself a city in 1881, people carved up the surrounding prairie, platting new neighborhoods all around the initial plat that became downtown. People flocked from all over the eastern states to make Aberdeen their home. This is true for the mercantile firm owners known as Beard, Gage & Beard, who are credited with developing a most mysterious land development in Aberdeen known as West Hill.
Many have heard the term "West Hill," however few probably know its origins, its footprint, and what it actually refers to.
Just where is "West Hill?" Well, it's out west, and it's Aberdeen's only discernible hill. As you travel on Sixth Avenue going west, as you pass by Lincoln Elementary and the Salvation Army, the grade starts to rise, peaking just past Steven Lust Automotive. West Hill rises 17 feet above Main Street. If you look at the map on the previous page you can see mapmaker W.P. Butler indicates the east edge of the hill.
The story of the West Hill housing development starts in the early 1800s with Thomas Clarkson Gage. According to articles from the Aberdeen Daily, he moved to South Dakota in 1881 from Fayetteville, New York, where he operated a merchandise business with his father. After moving to the city, he began looking for business partners to start his own merchandise operation. He met brothers Henry and Frank Beard and negotiations were made to start their Main Street store, then eventually their real estate firm, known as Beard, Gage & Beard.
Opening in March 1882, the business became the most well-established and profitable firm in the area. Beard, Gage & Beard are also credited with having the oldest merchandise establishment in Aberdeen.
Because of their already established business, Beard, Gage & Beard wanted to develop a prosperous housing development that would increase the number of resident lots in the booming city. They platted a 25-block development, not contiguous with existing plats, on top of a hill. This land development would be known as "West Hill," with the subtitle used in promotions, "Aberdeen's Only Rival City," presumably because it was not connected to Aberdeen. Beard, Gage & Beard were sure that it was to become the most successful development in the newly founded city.
The West Hill development can be found on the southwest part of town. It is now bordered by Twelfth Street to Fifteenth Street and from Sixth Avenue to Second Avenue. The West Hill development was considered desirable because of the land slope. The lots sold at the top of the hill were considered prime real estate because water could easily drain from the top of the hill down and didn't affect the homes' cellars. The area was also considered "strictly for residence," which promised future homeowners that no large businesses would be setting up shop in their backyard. This would soon cause problems for the development later on in its history.
Once announced in 1886, ads appeared in the local newspaper that anybody planning on moving to Aberdeen should very much consider purchasing a lot and build a home in West Hill. Because of very promising marketing, many prominent Aberdeen citizens began purchasing these lots, sold in quarter-block sections, and West Hill seemed like it was to become a very important housing development for the city
Very expensive mansions began to be built in West Hill, and it became an important site for many Aberdonians. Multiple articles from early publications, like the Aberdeen Daily, document that many of the people living in West Hill threw extravagant parties, whether it be birthdays or get-togethers with other people living in the neighborhood. In 1887 Beard, Gage & Beard built a sidewalk along Third Avenue from the Manitoba Depot (now Healthcare Plus Federal Credit Union) to West Hill. The stretch of sidewalk from downtown to West Hill was dubbed a promenade and labeled "Lover's Lane," as folks would take leisurely strolls through the neighborhood. Anybody who was anybody in Aberdeen wanted to live in West Hill, but, quickly, this mindset changed.
The West Hill development faced many problems in the late 1890s and into the new century. In 1894, Gage retired from the firm he created with the Beards. Due to the business's valuable merchandise and real estate, he still remained in close contact with the Beards and continued to help run the business and promote his developments, said earlier editions of the Aberdeen American News. Also during this time, many of the prominent Aberdeen citizens who built mansions in West Hill soon abandoned or moved the homes they built, one example being prominent Aberdeen resident, Will Foster.
Documented in the Aberdeen Weekly, Foster built his West Hill home in 1887 at the height of the development's excitement at the corner of Fourth Avenue and Thirteenth Street (Fifteenth Avenue in 1887). He moved to Aberdeen to start a family with his wife, an elocutioner who was one of the most well known in the country. Foster was the deputy register of deeds, auditor, and treasurer for Aberdeen for many years, and lived in West Hill until the late 1890s. He later moved to Chicago, where he became an executive in the Northwestern Railroad. Due to a series of unfortunate events, he returned to Aberdeen to bury his sister, who committed suicide.
Over the years, the entire area around and west of Lincoln Elementary School became known as West Hill by people who grew up in the west part of Aberdeen. However, another prominent and competitive development, known as Highland Park, was platted due south of, and a year or two after West Hill in 1888. Like its predecessor, many prominent Aberdeen citizens built lavish houses in the new, hip development. A man known as H.C. Jewett built a massive home at Ninth Avenue SE and Fifteenth Street S. but by the 1890s had moved it to the corner of Sixth Avenue and Jay Street. Highland Park suffered the same fate as West Hill. Neither could sustain their upscale image. Eventually, T.C. Gage changed his game and focused on selling individual lots, not quarter-block sized lots to folks of modest means. Even T.C. Gage left West Hill and built the small yellow and brown Victorian house that still stands at Kline Street, a few lots off Sixth Avenue, directly across the street where the library once stood.
SOURCE- https://aberdeenmag.com/2020/04/the-saga-of-west-hill/
NOTE- Excerpted
NOTE- The Gages bought and moved into the Kline Street house in 1920; it was about 33 years old at the time.
Named for Thomas Clarkson, an English abolitionist.
His mother was noted suffragist Matilda Joslyn Gage.
He and Sophie Jewell were married June 1, 1885, at the Episcopal church at Aberdeen, DT.
T. Clarkson Gage's sister Maud was married to author L. Frank Baum.
===============================
Thomas Clarkson (1848-1938; known as Clarkson or Clarky) graduated as part of the first class at Cornell University in 1872 (Wagner 2003:2; Schwartz 2009:29). He joined father Henry's store as a partner before seeking his fortune in the Dakota Territory, leaving Fayetteville in 1881 for Aberdeen to set up a store with the Beard brothers, also of Fayetteville (NYS Census 1875; US Federal Census 1880; Schwartz 2009:117). Clarkson represented the financial interests of Matilda and Henry in the Dakota Territory, helping them invest in land as the territory was settled. He married Sophie Jewell, also from Fayetteville, in Dakota in 1885. Sophie and Clarkson had three children, only one of whom survived infancy. Matilda Jewell Gage was born on April 22, 1886, and died in 1986. She kept the letters from her Grandmother Gage to her parents and was Dr. Sally Roesch Wagner's main source of information for her beginning research on the life of Gage. Her younger sisters, Alice, born in 1891, and Dorothy, born in 1898, only lived for a few days and five months after birth, respectively. Baby Dorothy Gage was the namesake for Dorothy Gale of The Wizard of Oz, written by Clarkson's brother-in-law L. Frank Baum, who married youngest Gage child Maud.
SOURCE- https://escholarship.org/content/qt6h70n14q/qt6h70n14q_noSplash_a1a098b78d7422d827b3b5bf2d911dc3.pdf
=============================
Matilda Gage told me when she was young the Gage family lived on West Hill, but never divulged that her father was one of the neighborhood's founders. KG
THE SAGA OF WEST HILL
Soon after Aberdeen declared itself a city in 1881, people carved up the surrounding prairie, platting new neighborhoods all around the initial plat that became downtown. People flocked from all over the eastern states to make Aberdeen their home. This is true for the mercantile firm owners known as Beard, Gage & Beard, who are credited with developing a most mysterious land development in Aberdeen known as West Hill.
Many have heard the term "West Hill," however few probably know its origins, its footprint, and what it actually refers to.
Just where is "West Hill?" Well, it's out west, and it's Aberdeen's only discernible hill. As you travel on Sixth Avenue going west, as you pass by Lincoln Elementary and the Salvation Army, the grade starts to rise, peaking just past Steven Lust Automotive. West Hill rises 17 feet above Main Street. If you look at the map on the previous page you can see mapmaker W.P. Butler indicates the east edge of the hill.
The story of the West Hill housing development starts in the early 1800s with Thomas Clarkson Gage. According to articles from the Aberdeen Daily, he moved to South Dakota in 1881 from Fayetteville, New York, where he operated a merchandise business with his father. After moving to the city, he began looking for business partners to start his own merchandise operation. He met brothers Henry and Frank Beard and negotiations were made to start their Main Street store, then eventually their real estate firm, known as Beard, Gage & Beard.
Opening in March 1882, the business became the most well-established and profitable firm in the area. Beard, Gage & Beard are also credited with having the oldest merchandise establishment in Aberdeen.
Because of their already established business, Beard, Gage & Beard wanted to develop a prosperous housing development that would increase the number of resident lots in the booming city. They platted a 25-block development, not contiguous with existing plats, on top of a hill. This land development would be known as "West Hill," with the subtitle used in promotions, "Aberdeen's Only Rival City," presumably because it was not connected to Aberdeen. Beard, Gage & Beard were sure that it was to become the most successful development in the newly founded city.
The West Hill development can be found on the southwest part of town. It is now bordered by Twelfth Street to Fifteenth Street and from Sixth Avenue to Second Avenue. The West Hill development was considered desirable because of the land slope. The lots sold at the top of the hill were considered prime real estate because water could easily drain from the top of the hill down and didn't affect the homes' cellars. The area was also considered "strictly for residence," which promised future homeowners that no large businesses would be setting up shop in their backyard. This would soon cause problems for the development later on in its history.
Once announced in 1886, ads appeared in the local newspaper that anybody planning on moving to Aberdeen should very much consider purchasing a lot and build a home in West Hill. Because of very promising marketing, many prominent Aberdeen citizens began purchasing these lots, sold in quarter-block sections, and West Hill seemed like it was to become a very important housing development for the city
Very expensive mansions began to be built in West Hill, and it became an important site for many Aberdonians. Multiple articles from early publications, like the Aberdeen Daily, document that many of the people living in West Hill threw extravagant parties, whether it be birthdays or get-togethers with other people living in the neighborhood. In 1887 Beard, Gage & Beard built a sidewalk along Third Avenue from the Manitoba Depot (now Healthcare Plus Federal Credit Union) to West Hill. The stretch of sidewalk from downtown to West Hill was dubbed a promenade and labeled "Lover's Lane," as folks would take leisurely strolls through the neighborhood. Anybody who was anybody in Aberdeen wanted to live in West Hill, but, quickly, this mindset changed.
The West Hill development faced many problems in the late 1890s and into the new century. In 1894, Gage retired from the firm he created with the Beards. Due to the business's valuable merchandise and real estate, he still remained in close contact with the Beards and continued to help run the business and promote his developments, said earlier editions of the Aberdeen American News. Also during this time, many of the prominent Aberdeen citizens who built mansions in West Hill soon abandoned or moved the homes they built, one example being prominent Aberdeen resident, Will Foster.
Documented in the Aberdeen Weekly, Foster built his West Hill home in 1887 at the height of the development's excitement at the corner of Fourth Avenue and Thirteenth Street (Fifteenth Avenue in 1887). He moved to Aberdeen to start a family with his wife, an elocutioner who was one of the most well known in the country. Foster was the deputy register of deeds, auditor, and treasurer for Aberdeen for many years, and lived in West Hill until the late 1890s. He later moved to Chicago, where he became an executive in the Northwestern Railroad. Due to a series of unfortunate events, he returned to Aberdeen to bury his sister, who committed suicide.
Over the years, the entire area around and west of Lincoln Elementary School became known as West Hill by people who grew up in the west part of Aberdeen. However, another prominent and competitive development, known as Highland Park, was platted due south of, and a year or two after West Hill in 1888. Like its predecessor, many prominent Aberdeen citizens built lavish houses in the new, hip development. A man known as H.C. Jewett built a massive home at Ninth Avenue SE and Fifteenth Street S. but by the 1890s had moved it to the corner of Sixth Avenue and Jay Street. Highland Park suffered the same fate as West Hill. Neither could sustain their upscale image. Eventually, T.C. Gage changed his game and focused on selling individual lots, not quarter-block sized lots to folks of modest means. Even T.C. Gage left West Hill and built the small yellow and brown Victorian house that still stands at Kline Street, a few lots off Sixth Avenue, directly across the street where the library once stood.
SOURCE- https://aberdeenmag.com/2020/04/the-saga-of-west-hill/
NOTE- Excerpted
NOTE- The Gages bought and moved into the Kline Street house in 1920; it was about 33 years old at the time.
His mother was noted suffragist Matilda Joslyn Gage.
He and Sophie Jewell were married June 1, 1885, at the Episcopal church at Aberdeen, DT.
T. Clarkson Gage's sister Maud was married to author L. Frank Baum.
===============================
Thomas Clarkson (1848-1938; known as Clarkson or Clarky) graduated as part of the first class at Cornell University in 1872 (Wagner 2003:2; Schwartz 2009:29). He joined father Henry's store as a partner before seeking his fortune in the Dakota Territory, leaving Fayetteville in 1881 for Aberdeen to set up a store with the Beard brothers, also of Fayetteville (NYS Census 1875; US Federal Census 1880; Schwartz 2009:117). Clarkson represented the financial interests of Matilda and Henry in the Dakota Territory, helping them invest in land as the territory was settled. He married Sophie Jewell, also from Fayetteville, in Dakota in 1885. Sophie and Clarkson had three children, only one of whom survived infancy. Matilda Jewell Gage was born on April 22, 1886, and died in 1986. She kept the letters from her Grandmother Gage to her parents and was Dr. Sally Roesch Wagner's main source of information for her beginning research on the life of Gage. Her younger sisters, Alice, born in 1891, and Dorothy, born in 1898, only lived for a few days and five months after birth, respectively. Baby Dorothy Gage was the namesake for Dorothy Gale of The Wizard of Oz, written by Clarkson's brother-in-law L. Frank Baum, who married youngest Gage child Maud.
SOURCE- https://escholarship.org/content/qt6h70n14q/qt6h70n14q_noSplash_a1a098b78d7422d827b3b5bf2d911dc3.pdf
=============================
Matilda Gage told me when she was young the Gage family lived on West Hill, but never divulged that her father was one of the neighborhood's founders. KG
THE SAGA OF WEST HILL
Soon after Aberdeen declared itself a city in 1881, people carved up the surrounding prairie, platting new neighborhoods all around the initial plat that became downtown. People flocked from all over the eastern states to make Aberdeen their home. This is true for the mercantile firm owners known as Beard, Gage & Beard, who are credited with developing a most mysterious land development in Aberdeen known as West Hill.
Many have heard the term "West Hill," however few probably know its origins, its footprint, and what it actually refers to.
Just where is "West Hill?" Well, it's out west, and it's Aberdeen's only discernible hill. As you travel on Sixth Avenue going west, as you pass by Lincoln Elementary and the Salvation Army, the grade starts to rise, peaking just past Steven Lust Automotive. West Hill rises 17 feet above Main Street. If you look at the map on the previous page you can see mapmaker W.P. Butler indicates the east edge of the hill.
The story of the West Hill housing development starts in the early 1800s with Thomas Clarkson Gage. According to articles from the Aberdeen Daily, he moved to South Dakota in 1881 from Fayetteville, New York, where he operated a merchandise business with his father. After moving to the city, he began looking for business partners to start his own merchandise operation. He met brothers Henry and Frank Beard and negotiations were made to start their Main Street store, then eventually their real estate firm, known as Beard, Gage & Beard.
Opening in March 1882, the business became the most well-established and profitable firm in the area. Beard, Gage & Beard are also credited with having the oldest merchandise establishment in Aberdeen.
Because of their already established business, Beard, Gage & Beard wanted to develop a prosperous housing development that would increase the number of resident lots in the booming city. They platted a 25-block development, not contiguous with existing plats, on top of a hill. This land development would be known as "West Hill," with the subtitle used in promotions, "Aberdeen's Only Rival City," presumably because it was not connected to Aberdeen. Beard, Gage & Beard were sure that it was to become the most successful development in the newly founded city.
The West Hill development can be found on the southwest part of town. It is now bordered by Twelfth Street to Fifteenth Street and from Sixth Avenue to Second Avenue. The West Hill development was considered desirable because of the land slope. The lots sold at the top of the hill were considered prime real estate because water could easily drain from the top of the hill down and didn't affect the homes' cellars. The area was also considered "strictly for residence," which promised future homeowners that no large businesses would be setting up shop in their backyard. This would soon cause problems for the development later on in its history.
Once announced in 1886, ads appeared in the local newspaper that anybody planning on moving to Aberdeen should very much consider purchasing a lot and build a home in West Hill. Because of very promising marketing, many prominent Aberdeen citizens began purchasing these lots, sold in quarter-block sections, and West Hill seemed like it was to become a very important housing development for the city
Very expensive mansions began to be built in West Hill, and it became an important site for many Aberdonians. Multiple articles from early publications, like the Aberdeen Daily, document that many of the people living in West Hill threw extravagant parties, whether it be birthdays or get-togethers with other people living in the neighborhood. In 1887 Beard, Gage & Beard built a sidewalk along Third Avenue from the Manitoba Depot (now Healthcare Plus Federal Credit Union) to West Hill. The stretch of sidewalk from downtown to West Hill was dubbed a promenade and labeled "Lover's Lane," as folks would take leisurely strolls through the neighborhood. Anybody who was anybody in Aberdeen wanted to live in West Hill, but, quickly, this mindset changed.
The West Hill development faced many problems in the late 1890s and into the new century. In 1894, Gage retired from the firm he created with the Beards. Due to the business's valuable merchandise and real estate, he still remained in close contact with the Beards and continued to help run the business and promote his developments, said earlier editions of the Aberdeen American News. Also during this time, many of the prominent Aberdeen citizens who built mansions in West Hill soon abandoned or moved the homes they built, one example being prominent Aberdeen resident, Will Foster.
Documented in the Aberdeen Weekly, Foster built his West Hill home in 1887 at the height of the development's excitement at the corner of Fourth Avenue and Thirteenth Street (Fifteenth Avenue in 1887). He moved to Aberdeen to start a family with his wife, an elocutioner who was one of the most well known in the country. Foster was the deputy register of deeds, auditor, and treasurer for Aberdeen for many years, and lived in West Hill until the late 1890s. He later moved to Chicago, where he became an executive in the Northwestern Railroad. Due to a series of unfortunate events, he returned to Aberdeen to bury his sister, who committed suicide.
Over the years, the entire area around and west of Lincoln Elementary School became known as West Hill by people who grew up in the west part of Aberdeen. However, another prominent and competitive development, known as Highland Park, was platted due south of, and a year or two after West Hill in 1888. Like its predecessor, many prominent Aberdeen citizens built lavish houses in the new, hip development. A man known as H.C. Jewett built a massive home at Ninth Avenue SE and Fifteenth Street S. but by the 1890s had moved it to the corner of Sixth Avenue and Jay Street. Highland Park suffered the same fate as West Hill. Neither could sustain their upscale image. Eventually, T.C. Gage changed his game and focused on selling individual lots, not quarter-block sized lots to folks of modest means. Even T.C. Gage left West Hill and built the small yellow and brown Victorian house that still stands at Kline Street, a few lots off Sixth Avenue, directly across the street where the library once stood.
SOURCE- https://aberdeenmag.com/2020/04/the-saga-of-west-hill/
NOTE- Excerpted
NOTE- The Gages bought and moved into the Kline Street house in 1920; it was about 33 years old at the time.
Family Members
Sponsored by Ancestry
Advertisement
Explore more
Sponsored by Ancestry
Advertisement
