Dotha Bushnell Hillyer (1843 – 1932) was an American philanthropist. The youngest daughter of Reverend Horace Bushnell and Mary Apthorpe, Dotha Bushnell was born in

Hartford Hartford is the capital city of the U.S. state of Connecticut. It was the seat of Hartford County until Connecticut disbanded county government in 1960. It is the core city in the Greater Hartford metropolitan area. Census estimates since t ...

. In 1879, she married Appleton Robbins Hillyer. With her husband, she helped establish the West Hartford Science Museum, now The Children's Museum, and the Hillyer

YMCA YMCA, sometimes regionally called the Y, is a worldwide youth organization based in Geneva, Switzerland, with more than 64 million beneficiaries in 120 countries. It was founded on 6 June 1844 by George Williams (philanthropist), Georg ...

building, and later Hillyer College at the

University of Hartford The University of Hartford (UHart) is a private university in West Hartford, Connecticut. Its main campus extends into neighboring Hartford and Bloomfield. The university attracts students from 48 states and 43 countries. The university and it ...

. She also built the Horace Bushnell Memorial Hall, and later

The Bushnell Center for the Performing Arts The Bushnell Center for the Performing Arts (formerly known as Bushnell Memorial Hall or simply The Bushnell ) is a performing arts venue at 166 Capitol Street in Hartford, Connecticut. Managed by a non-profit organization, it is marketed as Con ...

, in honor of her father. She saw the hall as a gathering place for the community. Hillyer had opened an investment account with $800,000 to finance the project; the account grew to $2.5 million. She was fortunate enough to withdraw the money just before

Wall Street Crash of 1929 The Wall Street Crash of 1929, also known as the Great Crash, was a major American stock market crash that occurred in the autumn of 1929. It started in September and ended late in October, when share prices on the New York Stock Exchange coll ...

. The hall opened in January 1930. Hillyer was too ill to attend the opening of the Horace Bushnell Memorial Hall in 1930 and died two years later. In 2003, she was inducted into the

Connecticut Women's Hall of Fame The Connecticut Women's Hall of Fame (CWHF) recognizes women natives or residents of the U.S. state of Connecticut for their significant achievements or statewide contributions. The CWHF had its beginnings in 1993 when a group of volunteers partn ...

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Hillyer, Dotha Bushnell 1843 births 1942 deaths American philanthropists