Curtis Justin Hillyer: Silver King Lawyer and Real Estate Speculator

Curtis Justin Hillyer was born in Granville, Ohio, in 1828. After graduating from Yale University, he studied law and then taught in a high school in Cincinnati, Ohio. Due to his health, he left the Midwest for California where he ended up buying a mining claim. After working the claim for only four months, he set up a law office in the mining district in Placer County, California. While there, he was appointed clerk of the Supreme Court of California.  Although he never served on the bench himself, he acquired the nickname “Judge" Hillyer.  Hillyer resigned his position with the court when the Comstock Lode was struck in 1859 and moved to Virginia City, Nevada, where he worked at a law firm under its senior partner, William Stewart. There, he served as legal counsel to the Silver Kings’ Consolidated Virginia Mining Company and, as a result, amassed a considerable fortune. Hillyer first visited Washington in 1871 on business and was so impressed by its developmental prospects that he moved to the city and set up a law firm.

Curtis Justin Hillyer.  Author's Collection.

Hillyer, William Stewart, and Thomas Sunderland, all three mid-westerners who knew one another from their mining days in Virginia City, Nevada, formed what was known as the “Pacific Pool” or “Pacific Syndicate” (Dupont Circle was originally named "Pacific Circle"), which was managed through the local real estate firm operated by Hallet Kilbourn and Matthew Latta.  The syndicate, somehow apprised of Alexander Shepherd's plans to improve Connecticut Avenue north of Farragut Square and Shepherd's Row to the Dupont Circle area, began buying up as much real estate as they could along the route.  The pool was also sometimes referred to as the “California Syndicate” or the “Honest Miners Camp,” although none of its members were originally from California, and honesty was certainly not the prevailing virtue of the syndicate. 

In February 1873, months before the disastrous effects of that year's financial panic would unfold,  Hillyer withdrew some land from the real estate pool for himself and obtained a permit for the construction of a new house on the western end of Massachusetts Avenue at 2121, where it then terminated at the edge of the city at Boundary Street (now Florida Avenue). At the time, this was considered the hinterlands, as it was not only away from Dupont Circle, but Massachusetts Avenue this far west was basically only a concept on a map.  It is uncertain whose mansion came first, Hillyer's or Senator William Stewart's, but Hillyer may have begun his house first to encourage his close friend William Stewart to build on the land that the syndicate had snapped up in speculation of the future development of the area.  

Hillyer mansion at 2121 Massachusetts Avenue, NW.  HABS, Library of Congress.

Hillyer was shielded from much of the financial effects of the panic of 1873, as he still maintained his successful legal practice in Washington.  He was able to hold on to all his property in Washington and meet the payments as they became due. 

It is not known who the architect was for Hillyer's mansion.  There were only a few architects working in town at the time who knew how to and had experience building on such a large scale.  It may have been designed by Adolf Cluss, who certainly could build on a large scale but at that time he was working full-time at the Bureau of Public Works under Alexander Shepherd, although he had been persuaded to design William Stewart's "castle" around the same time as Hillyer's house.

By 1881, Hillyer began suffering from significant hearing loss. Forced to give up his law practice on the West Coast, he decided to reside permanently in Washington. He continued to argue cases before the Supreme Court until his increasing deafness compelled him to stop, and he retired completely from practicing law in 1891 and decided to pursue real estate development. 

Hillyer teamed up with architect Robert Fleming in the early 1880s to develop two neighborhoods on his properties, one of which is Hillyer Place behind his house on Massachusetts Avenue.  Hillyer Place runs between 20th and 21st streets NW, between Q and R where several of the houses that Hillyer built remain today, including those between 2010 and 2023 Hillyer Place.  Hillyer himself would later move to a house he had built at the end of Hillyer Place at 1618 21st Street, NW.   That house is still standing, but has now been incorporated into the Phillips Collection annex.

Hillyer and his wife, Angeline, had four sons and a daughter, Bessie.  In April 1888, 19-year-old Bessie died in the house after intentionally consuming rat poison.  Bessie had been engaged to be married to a W.L. Trenholm, but in December 1887 she eloped with DeGrassie Bulkey, a banker and the 20-year-old son of a District physician, and they were married in Baltimore.  For some unknown reason, the couple separated after after returning from Baltimore and Bessie returned to her father's house.  According to the New York National Police Gazette, when Hillyer learned of the marriage, he immediately "locked his truant daughter in her room and refused to allow her husband to see her."  He then tried to dissolve the marriage, claiming that his daughter had been tricked or coerced into the marriage, and that the groom was still a minor.  Neither claim proved to be true.

In December 1887, Hillyer, Bessie, Bulkley, and close family friend William Stewart all met together and Bessie was asked to pick between her husband and Mr. Trenholm.  She chose DeGrassie after which the two lived together as a married couple first in a hotel and then in a private home for less than two weeks, after which Bessie again returned home alone.  Official divorce proceedings may had filed, but the actual reason why the young couple separated at this time is unknown.  It may have been that Bessie had a history of mental illness, which her father would certainly have been aware of, that would not have allowed for any type of stable relationship.

In the morning of Wednesday, April 11, 1888 doctors were called to the Hillyer home after Bessie had “taken very ill.” Despite pumping her stomach to remove the poison and constant medical attention, she died the next day.  The Washington Post said of Bessie's untimely death:  "The terrible mental anguish that had produced this result and had changed a beautiful and apparently happy bride into a miserable and half-demented woman, who, to end her troubles, ended also her existence, and all in the course of a few short months, has yet to be explained.”  Bessie was buried in the Van Ness plot in Oak Hill Cemetery in an unmarked grave due to the stigma of suicide at that time.  There was not a public ceremony of any kind.

Hillyer remained in his house at 2121 Massachusetts Avenue until 1898, when he sold it to Mary Scott Townsend.  Hillyer then moved to a modest town house next to the Phillips mansion at 1618 21st Street, NW that he had built in 1884 that was designed by architect Robert Fleming.  The house still stands today, but has been significantly modified and has been incorporated as part of the Phillips Gallery complex.

 

Hillyer home at 1618 21st Street, NW. circa 1900.  Author's collection.

  

Hillyer home at 1618 21st Street, NW today.  Photo: Google Maps

Hillyer died on August 5, 1906 at the age of 78 from a fatal heart attack in his Pullman car as it was being floated across the Hudson River on a ferry to Jersey City, N.J. on his return to Washington.  He is buried in the Van Ness plot in Oak Hill Cemetery along with his wife and daughter.

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