Entrepreneurs and Philanthropists

Samuel L. Hill

The major industries established in Florence during the 19th century were founded by reform-minded individuals who championed progressive causes throughout their lives.  Their success in business was matched by their generosity in giving.  Many of the civic institutions of present day Florence are the result of their philanthropy.  Samuel L. Hill, founder of the Nonotuck Silk Company, was among the radical abolitionists who formed a utopian community in Florence in the 1840s.  He continued to be an active reformer in retirement and a champion of the theories of Friedrich Froebel, with their emphasis on early childhood education.  In 1876, he established the Hill Institute, one of the first kindergartens in the country with an endowment to provide free instruction to every child in the community.

The Lilly Library, c. 1895

Alfred T. Lilly was brought by Hill to become the Treasurer of the Nonotuck Silk Company and made a fortune of his own.  In 1888, he built the Lilly Library for the town of Florence.  A few years before he had given the money to build the Lilly Hall of Science at Smith College which was dedicated in 1886.  It was Lilly who provided the endowment for evening classes and adult education at the Hill Institute.

Cosmian Hall, c. 1880

The spirit of the abolitionist utopian community lived on in the Free Congregational Society of Florence.  Organized in 1866 by Samuel Hill and 34 others, it was a freethinking religious body far outside the orthodox beliefs of mainstream denominations.  Its first resident speaker was Charles C. Burleigh followed by Elizabeth Powell who later became Dean of Swarthmore College.  The growth of the Society prompted Hill to finance the construction of Cosmian Hall in 1874. For over 70 years its ample auditorium filled to hear speakers such as Ralph Waldo Emerson, Elizabeth Cady Stanton, Frederick Douglass and Julia Ward Howe. It was demolished in 1948.

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