Disappointed Over The Hills

A few years ago, when I began passing by this building located at 3600 W Irving Park frequently I often wondered what this once gorgeous specimen was famous for. Based on the building’s current exterior condition I would have never guessed that it used to be a bank. I guess the Jackson Hewitt rob your tax refund place fooled me as it is not easily the best clue on figuring out its former use. A couple of months ago upon taking the photos I noticed the inscription that read “Hill Block” and “A.H. Hill & Co.” This made me think that perhaps its former use was that of a factory. Once again imagine my surprise when tonight I found out that it was once the location of Hill State Bank. Owned, operated and named after wealthy real estate scion Alonzo H. Hill. The fun part isn’t necessarily the building’s history but the sordid history of Mr. Hill’s very interesting family which probably would have made an episode of Dynasty jealous in its juiciness.

Alonzo H. Hill born in 1853 made his fortune in real estate. He was also responsible for building many of the home developments in the Irving Park-Elston district right near where he ultimately located his bank. I have no clue what kind of man Mr. Hill was. Most men of this era were probably honorable hard working men. Mr. Hill was certainly hard at work when at the ripe age of sixty-five in 1916 he married Elizabeth McMillin who was then eighteen years old! That is a whopping forty-seven year age difference! What can I say? At least ole Elizabeth was legal, I guess. Mr. Hill had children from his previous marriage, two of which didn’t fare well in love and life.

First there was the black sheep son named Harvey Hill. Nowadays we refer to black sheep as the family screw up but potato/pahtato. Harvey was accused of writing bad checks in 1916, the same year his daddy married Lizzie. Maybe he was having issues with the age difference and felt that giving away non-existent money might make him feel better. Or maybe he was pissed because he too couldn’t marry an eighteen year old. Whatever the case, daddy Hill refused to bail Harvey out of jail citing that he had bailed poor little misguided Harvey many times out of trouble before. Kudos to the elder Hill for sticking to his guns instead of sending the troubled felon to hide in some getaway like Bora Bora. Four years later, Harvey struck again when he was arrested once more. This time he wasn’t in handcuffs because of bad checks but because of bigamy! His “common law wife” as the 1920 Tribune article describes filed charges against him. Although the article doesn’t delve much into details of why bigamy one can only guess that maybe the junior Hill was dreaming of life as a Mormon.

Harvey also had a brother named Elmer Hill who had some troubles of his own. The other Hill son had issues of the Girl Interrupted variety. One could only guess that maybe Elmer was just upset because he had to go through life named after a brand name glue. Can you imagine the playground taunts and the fact that eating glue as a kid would have made his life much more complicated? Sadly, in 1908 at the age of nineteen Elmer took his own life. The amazing thing here is that the future Mrs. Alonzo H. Hill was but a mere tyke in 1908. Unfortunately, poor Elmer felt compelled to leave a suicide note. Word on the street is he killed himself for a girl who no doubt dumped him because she couldn’t be with a guy named Elmer. The newspaper put his reasons as “…Disappointed over a love affair.” That love affair was with a gal named Aleta and in the letter he writes “Goodbye, all friends. This world I don’t like, except papa, mama and brothers. I think the next world is where we are really meant for and there I am going. Forgive me. PS: Mama, tell Aleta, will you?” Poor young Aleta. I’m sure she was traumatized for life or happy to get rid of him. One or the other.

The Hill family saga aside, the bank had some troubles of its own. In 1917, assistant cashier Harold Veitz was accused of stealing ten thousand smackaroos from the bank. Ha ha, maybe he was Hill’s illegitimate son although he didn’t have a penchant for writing bad checks like Harvey. Hill himself caught Veltz in the act when the books didn’t add up and he figured out big chunks of money were missing. Meanwhile, at the time of these heinous accusations Veitz had a young wife and baby at home. “Neighbors and acquaintances of Veitz said he was a lively young man, who enjoyed cabareting and was known as a “sport,” who had money and was not averse to spending it.” Of course he had money. People usually have money to spend when it isn’t theirs. Yesterday it was blowing it off at the cabarets. Today it’s called blowing off every cent at the strip club while your wife and baby starve at home.

After all this though, Mr. Hill built a new bank on the corner of Lawrence and Cristiana and moved his operation over to that building in 1918. Two years later, Mr. Hill sold the bank and the tales of lost money and suicides effectively came to an end. Although now that part of the building at 3600 W Irving Park is being used for preparations of income taxes, I’m sure there are budding Harvey and Elmer Hills waiting to bloom.