Brothers James and Gus Hiller and their company’s dozens of carpenters, craftsmen and sales people were a force that shaped Portland neighborhoods in the 1920s and 1930s, pioneering new systems of suburban development and homebuilding at a scale not seen before. Operating as Hiller Brothers Incorporated, the company built more than 400 homes, creating entire new Portland neighborhoods on both sides of the Willamette River.

A Hiller Brothers built home at 2131 NE Siskiyou, from The Oregonian, March 14, 1926

Born in Carbondale, Illinois 16 years apart, the elder James was the first to move to Oregon in 1913 following six years of operating a dairy in Oklahoma. Arriving toward the end of Portland’s first homebuilding boom, James joined the successful residential real estate firm of Fred Jacobs Co. and was responsible for negotiating high-end property sales.

In 1920, 26-year-old Gus was working as an auto mechanic in San Diego, married and with two young children. When the second Portland homebuilding boom began to take off about that time, Gus’s 42-year-old realtor brother suggested he come north. The two formed Hiller Brothers Incorporated: Gus took charge of the construction department and James the real estate department.

For the first year, the firm focused almost entirely on real estate sales rather than homebuilding, selling more than 400 properties in the Rose City Park Area and launching separate real estate departments for farms, apartment buildings, commercial buildings and homes. By 1923, as homebuilding (and home buying) expanded, the company was fully engaged, building and selling dozens of homes in Irvington and Alameda and in Mocks Crest in North Portland.

Hiller frequently used plans drawn by Hubert A. Williams (1887-1965), a Portland architect known for his bungalow, English cottage, and Tudor revival designs. Williams also provided house plans to contractor Willis M. Chandler, who often partnered with the Hiller brothers. During his career, Williams designed more than 5,000 buildings in the Portland area.

By 1926, Hiller Brothers Inc. had built more than 40 homes within a two-block radius of NE Knott and NE 32^nd (Gus lived in a home the company built in 1923 at 3107 NE Knott, and James lived not too far away at 2028 NE Alameda Drive, built in 1926 by Hiller Brothers).

The company’s early niche was a mid-market bungalow-style house, with designs by Hubert A. Williams. Excellent examples of these can be found on both sides of NE Knott between NE 30th and NE 32^nd, virtually all were built by Hiller Brothers. As the housing market matured, the Hillers chose to focus on building higher-end homes and developing entire new neighborhoods, including Garthwick in southeast Portland where the company was the lead developer.

From The Oregonian, April 26, 1925

From The Oregonian, July 19, 1926

James Hiller reflected on real estate market trends and hinted at the future in a May 1926 interview in The Oregonian, and later in a September 1927 interview with the Oregon Journal.

From The Oregonian May 2, 1926

From the Oregon Journal, September 11, 1927

Collapse of the national economy in October 1929 devastated the marketplace and brought an end to homebuilding. Many construction companies went bankrupt or ceased to exist. The brothers downsized the company and pivoted to repair and remodeling work. In 1931, the optimistic James deflected worries about the future:

From The Oregonian, March 1, 1931

Pretty good business must not have been good enough, because in 1932, the company folded and James—at 54 years old—took a break, retiring to the Rogue River Valley with what must have been a healthy savings from the boom years. A few years later, he came out of retirement, returning to Portland in 1936 as the housing market began to look up, with his eye on large-scale expansion and a particular piece of property on Portland’s westside.

From The Oregonian, May 10, 1936

The westside development project was larger than anything attempted since the first residential building boom years after the turn of the century, and may have been what lured James back to the Portland area. In September 1936, James made an announcement about a well-established and bucolic West Slope landscape that was about to change dramatically:

From The Oregonian, September 6, 1936

After West Slope, James stayed active in Portland real estate circles, lecturing about subdivision development to Portland realtors and taking an interest in particular projects. But Gus was no longer involved in the company and gravitated to odd jobs, eventually working in the North Portland shipyards during the war years. He died on August 31, 1945 at age 50 of cirrhosis of the liver. James lived on until age 74, dying on October 12, 1951.

For years after the brothers’ passing, as the many houses they built changed hands and a new generation of homeowners moved into the market, real estate advertisements continued to reference with pride “built by Hiller Brothers.”

Here is a partial list of homes built by Hiller Brothers Inc.

3104 NE Knott             9-6-1923

3107 NE Knott             9-15-1923 Gus & Lillie Hiller home 1930

3111 NE Knott             9-15-1923

3112 NE Knott             11-7-1923

3123 NE Knott             2-28-1924

3124 NE Knott             11-7-1923

3133 NE Knott             11-22-1923

3132 NE Knott             2-28-1924

All the houses facing Knott between 31^st and 32^nd:

2905 NE Knott             3-8-1923

2911 NE Knott             3-8-1923

2921 NE Knott             8-10-1923

2933 NE Knott             8-21-1923

All the houses on the north side of Knott between 29^th and 30^th

2904 NE Knott             4-10-1923

2914 NE Knott             5-23-1923

2645 NE 30                 6-25-1923       SE Corner faces 30^th, but at Knott

Most of the houses on the south side of Knott between 29^th and 30^th

3015 NE 66^th   1-10-1924

2625 NE 30^th   2-25-1924

2615 NE 30^th   7-1-1924

2635 NE 30^th   2-15-1924

2607 NE 30^th   6-23-1924

2581 NE 30^th   5-28-1924

2580 NE 30^th   9-18-1924

2606 NE 30^th   8-23-1924

2622 NE 30^th   3-31-1924

2634 NE 30^th   2-15-1924

3032 NE Knott 12-26-1923

Virtually all of the houses on NE 30^th between Knott and the bend north of Brazee

2572 NE 31^st    6-13-1924

2580 NE 31^st    3-19-1925

2604 NE 31^st    12-1-1924

2612 NE 31^st    1-21-1925

2626 NE 31^st    3-31-1924

2581 NE 31^st    11-26-1924

2573 NE 31^st    10-16-1924

Virtually all of the houses on NE 31^st between Knott and the bend north of Brazee

2603 NE 32^nd   10-16-1924

2617 NE 32^nd   10-16-1924

2627 NE 32^nd   1-22-1925

2575 NE 32^nd   3-19-1925

All of the houses on the west side of the street on 32^nd between Knott and the bend

3333 NE Morris           11-20-1924

3325 NE Morris           7-9-1925

2131 NE Siskiyou        4-22-1926

3117 NE 22^nd               12-20-1926

3205 NE 22^nd               2-26-1926

3217 NE 22^nd               9-1-1925

3227 NE 22^nd               7-21-1925

3235 NE 22^nd               5-7-1925

Most of the houses on the west side of 22^nd between Siskiyou and Klickitat

7107 N. Seward          11-17-1925

7117 N. Seward          4-22-1926

7125 N. Seward          8-7-1925

7214 N. Seward          3-24-1926

4204 NE 25^th               1-15-1924

2014 NE Mason          2-26-1927

2028 NE Alameda Drive          7-8-1926 (James and Sarah Hiller home)

2010 NE Alameda Drive          7-8-1926

2027 NE Alameda Drive          3-11-1926

2034 NE Alameda Drive          3-11-1927

2053 NE Alameda Drive   4-26-1926

4455 NE Alameda                   10-16-1924