Roughly bounded by 3rd and 9th Sts. and 7th and 10th Aves. SW, Rochester, Minnesota. County/parish: Olmsted.
Added to the National Register of Historic Places November 29, 1990. NRIS 85003768.
130 contributing buildings. 1 contributing site. 2 contributing structures.Also known as:
Pill Hill is a National Register of Historic Places district in Rochester, Minnesota. The residential neighborhood encompasses almost 130 houses built on a limestone bluff, predominantly for staff of the nearby Mayo Clinic. "Pill Hill" was initially an irreverent term coined by early local residents which was eventually embraced by the community. Its period of significance is approximately 1885-1937, with the vast majority of the homes being constructed in an approximately 30-year span in the first third of the 1900s. The neighborhood contains houses that showcase a diverse spectrum of Western architectural tradition, with numerous examples of Colonial revival, Tudor revival, Craftsman style, Prairie school, and Spanish revival homes, and also including fewer examples of Elizabethan revival, French eclectic, Neoclassical, Queen Anne, and Storybook, among others. Notable Minnesotan architects have works represented in the neighborhood, including Harold Crawford (36 houses, including 5 remodels), Ellerbe and Associates (approximately 30 houses), and Edwin Lundie (two houses, both remodels). The original owners of the homes and past residents also contribute to the neighborhood's historic significance, including Nobel prizewinners Edward Calvin Kendall and Luis Walter Alvarez, as well as numerous pioneers and leaders in medicine who worked at the adjacent Mayo Clinic including William J. Mayo, John W. Kirklin, Fredrick A. Willius, Louis B. Wilson, and Alfred W. Adson, among many others.
In 1990, Pill Hill was added to the National Register of Historic Places. Homeowners in the neighborhood started a grassroots campaign in 2023 and were successful in achieving a local historic landmark district designation for Pill Hill from the City of Rochester in 2025.
(read more...)National Park Service documentation: https://catalog.archives.gov/id/93202448