Talk:John Y. Hill

Other John Hills

I removed the "See also" section which listed works by other persons who happened to have the name John Hill. The individual who is the subject of this article appears to have no connection with these other works. All available information on John Y. Hill indicates that he lived continuously in Elizabethtown, Kentucky from 1818 until his death in 1859. These other works are mostly located in the western United States. The one in Viriginia shows a different middle initial. The inclusion of these other works appears to have been intended as a "to do" list for future work, but in the context of an article on John Y. Hill is likely only to create confusion. To preserve the work for later research, the old See also section is reproduced below:

• Alfred and Rosy Skinner House, 232 W. 800 S. Orem, UT (Hill, John J.), NRHP-listed
• Tonapah Public Library, 171 Central Tonopah, NV (Hill,John J.), NRHP-listed
• John Hill Ranch-Keltomaki, NE of Brownsville Brownsville, SD (Hill,John,Jr.), NRHP-listed
• Enchanted Mesa Trading Post, 9612 Central Ave. SE. Albuquerque, NM (Hill, John), NRHP-listed
• Silver City Water Works Building, Little Walnut Rd. Silver City, NM (Hill,John), NRHP-listed
• John Hill House, 230 W. 6th St. Erie, PA (Hill,John), NRHP-listed
• West Park Place, Bounded by N. Park Row, Peach, 5th, and State Sts. Erie, PA (Hill,John), NRHP-listed
• Middlesex County Courthouse, Jct. of U.S. 17 Saluda, VA (Hill,John P.), NRHP-listed
• Pentagon Barracks, North Riverside Mall Baton Rouge, LA (Hill,John), NRHP-listed

Cbl62 (talk) 22:20, 12 September 2012 (UTC)

Fine, thanks for building the available info about John Y. Hill. You can now reach some more informed judgement about which buildings are associated with him. I had left the See also list in the article intending for it to be temporary, allowing for finding connections while the article was under active construction. Your judgment now is probably good, but could still turn out to be imperfect too. E.g. it still could turn out that this John Y. Hill had a career in one area, then moved to another area, and some of those other links could be related to him. As has turned out to be the case for some other NRHP architects and builders, including one whose relatively common name escapes me, a person who had an architectural career in Maine and then a later one in Minnesota, and the connection was established by starting articles about several of them and finding way to sources that mentioned the move from state to state. I think there is an art here, to provide links where some association is possible, and then to use judgments, in conjunction with developing information about all of them, to pare down the connections left in a main article about the person.

Anyhow, I don't disagree with your judgement now to move those ones out, after developing this article a bit, and appreciate that you moved them here, to allow for further consideration. I put wikilinks back into your mentions of them above, which would allow some future editor to find a way back to this Talk page, from a new article about one of these, in the unlikely event that there is some true connection. Thanks.

One more item, just moved out of the article by me, now:

• Gen. Thomas Hart House, Ecton Rd., Winchester, Kentucky (Hill, John), NRHP-listed

Winchester, in Clark County, is several counties away from Elizabethton, in Hardin County. I just started an article for it and found my way to a Clark County MRA source that I just consulted, which indicates it was built by 1808, too early to have been built by this John Y. Hill, when matched up to your info that John Y. Hill was born in 1799. I did not obtain the individual NRHP nom form for the house. It could turn out that the Gen. Thomas Hart House was later renovated by, or has other association, with this John Y. Hill, in which case it should be added back to the article. But my best guess, now, is that this is a different John Hill.

It is not obvious what to do about spelling variations in a NRHP architect or builder's name. In many cases a wrong middle initial is given for a person in some of his/her works, and it seems best to allow for possibility of a typo. The John P. Hill person associated with a Virginia work is probably not related, but it is interesting you did find a Virginia connection. I'll start the article for the Middlesex County Courthouse (Saluda, Virginia), for which an individual NRHP nomination should be available on-line (because Virginia ones are online), expecting that will go towards confirming no connection. Thanks, --doncram 16:27, 14 September 2012 (UTC)

Indeed, there seems to be no available support for John P. Hill being anything other than a different person, after starting that article and checking its NRHP nom doc.

And John J. Hill is definitely a different person and seems marginally Wikipedia-notable. I went ahead and started an article for him as i had at least found birth date and location and death date, and he seems to have built two NRHP-listed places. --doncram 21:52, 14 September 2012 (UTC)