John Hartwell Hillman Jr. (1880–1959) was an American businessman who was active in coal, steel and gas.
Early life and career
Hillman was born in 1880 to
J. Hartwell Hillman Sr. and his wife, Sallie Murfree Frazer.
His father was the founder of the
Hillman Coal and Coke Company.
Hillman headed his family's company, J. H. Hillman & Sons, in partnership with his brothers Ernest Hillman (1883–1969) and James Frazier Hillman (1888–1972).
Eventually, the company became Pittsburgh Coke & Chemical, which is now
Calgon Carbon
Calgon Carbon Corporation is a Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania based company that manufactures and markets products that remove contaminants and odors from liquids and gases, both for industrial, municipal, and consumer markets. Calgon Carbon's product ...
.
Hillman House
In 1919, Hillman bought a late-1870s red-brick, three-storey house at "Millionaires' Row" on
Fifth Avenue
Fifth Avenue is a major thoroughfare in the borough (New York City), borough of Manhattan in New York City. The avenue runs south from 143rd Street (Manhattan), West 143rd Street in Harlem to Washington Square Park in Greenwich Village. The se ...
in
Pittsburgh
Pittsburgh ( ) is a city in Allegheny County, Pennsylvania, United States, and its county seat. It is the List of municipalities in Pennsylvania#Municipalities, second-most populous city in Pennsylvania (after Philadelphia) and the List of Un ...
, which had been built for James Rees, a boat and engine builder. Initially, Hillman engaged the architect
Benno Janssen
Benno Janssen (March 12, 1874 – October 14, 1964) was an American architect.
Childhood, education and career
Benno Janssen was born in St. Louis, Missouri, the son of Oscar Janssen and Thekla Susenbeth. Janssen studied at the University o ...
to design a new residence. However, he changed his mind and had
Edward Mellon remodel the existing house, encasing it in limestone and renaming it "Hillman House". The home stayed in the family until 1975.
Personal life
Hillman was married to Juliet Cummins Lea (1885–1940),
then subsequently married Dora Butcher. Hillman died in 1959.
Children
His son John Hartwell Hillman III was in the
Princeton University
Princeton University is a private university, private Ivy League research university in Princeton, New Jersey, United States. Founded in 1746 in Elizabeth, New Jersey, Elizabeth as the College of New Jersey, Princeton is the List of Colonial ...
class of 1932 and was president of the National Garden Supply Corporation. He died on March 21, 1974, of heart failure at his Pittsburgh home.
His son
Henry Lea Hillman (1918–2017) was a billionaire investor.
References
{{DEFAULTSORT:Hillman, J. Hartwell
1880 births
1959 deaths
20th-century American businesspeople