The Hillside Historic District is a neighborhood located on Park Hill in Chehalis, Washington and has been listed on the National Register of Historic Places (NRHP) since 1996. It is one of three NRHP neighborhoods in the city, including the Pennsylvania Avenue-West Side Historic District and the Chehalis Downtown Historic District, which borders the Hillside District. Numerous homes have been awarded recognition by the Chehalis Historic Preservation Commission for their architectural and historical importance to the city. The hillside was originally part of a land claim under the Saunders family, the founders of what would later become the city of Chehalis. The area was used for timber and mining in the community's early days. The build of a residential neighborhood began in 1888 with the first homes erected by 1890. Progress was initially slow with a major expansion of home construction occurring during the mid-to-late 1900s, which also included several infrastructure improvements such as a reservoir and sewer system. Several pioneer and prominent Chehalis families resided in the Hillside District during the early 20th century, many of which either owned large tracts on the hill or helped to expand the neighborhood further. In the 1920s, another infrastructure and residential expansion progressed and by the 1930s, the district was considered mostly complete. The hillside underwent the addition of modern changes, such as the construction of apartment buildings, in the 1960s and 1970s. The Hillside District contains a variety of differing residential architectural styles, including American Foursquare and several types of American Craftsman and Craftsman Bungalows. Distinct styles in the neighborhood include Dutch Colonial, French Eclectic, Queen Anne, Tudor Revival, and Victorian. Several homes contain turrets, a rare architectural touch in the city. Most homes, due to the upslope of the hill, have views of Chehalis and the surrounding river valley. The district is home to John Dobson and McFadden Parks and the Troop 373 and 7373 Scout Lodge, an NRHP-listed site.
History At the beginning of the settlement of Saundersville, eventually to become known as Chehalis, the hillside was part of an original Donation Land Claim belonging to the founding family of Chehalis, the Saunders. Under ownership of Elizabeth "Eliza" Tynan Saunders Barrett after a divorce, Obadiah B. McFadden purchased half the claim when he moved the community. In the city's early history, the hill was used for pasture and orchard farming. A crab apple tree known as the Saunders Tree, originally located on Market and 4th Street, grew from a graft completed in 1870 by an unnamed Native American boy and Joseph Saunders, the youngest Saunders son. The hill also became of use as a natural resource, including coal mining and timber production. In the early 20th century, the hill was used as a rock quarry during street construction in the city. Most of the timber land was owned by the Chehalis Land & Timber Company (CL&T) beginning in 1888; the company was a crucial part of the early platting of the hillside. Beginning in 1888, the first streets built on the hillside were Adams, Jefferson, and Washington, named by the CL&T after the first presidents in the United States after the Washington territory was granted statehood. Early residential development began in 1890 but only a few homes, scattered amongst the hillside, had been built in a few years. The southern portion of the hillside was rapidly developed between 1905 and 1910. Initial infrastructure construction to provide a residential area on the hillside included a sewer system in 1906 and there were several road builds and improvements, such as the completion of Cascade Avenue from the main thoroughfare of Market Street to the hillside. A reservoir existed during this time that supplied water to the city, fed by the Newaukum River. A replacement reservoir, constructed out of wood, was built in 1928 to provide water specifically for hillside residents. The holding area was capable of containing 100,000 US gallons (380,000 L; 83,000 imp gal). The hill was a location of a wireless telegraphy station, operational and in use as late as 1909. Pioneers and founding members of the city owned residences, or plots, on the hillside. The home for the matriarch of Chehalis, Eliza Saunders, was near the intersection of Market and Main Street. Approximately half of the lots on Washington Avenue were owned by William Muir Urquhart, a banker, merchant, and long-serving civil servant in the city. Other prominent homeowners included family members of the Chehalis mint company I.P. Callison's & Sons, the banker N.B. Coffman, the attorney Daniel Millett of Millett Field fame, the coal and timber baron T.C. Rush, the mercantile Saindon brothers, and the Sticklin family noted for their funeral parlor. As the years passed into the Roaring Twenties, other notable persons, such as state senator A.E. Judd, continued the history of distinguished residents to call the hillside home.
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