John W. Hill (1885-1983) and his wife Amanda Carmichael (1887-1969) bought the store property in 1915. It functioned as a store almost until John Hill’s death, in 1983. Before the turn of the Century, the homes of Madison’s few Black families were scattered throughout the City. The area that was to become the City’s First Black Neighborhood was marshland near the intersection of Dayton and Blount Streets, about six blocks northeast of the Capitol Square. John W. Hill supplemented his income by opening a shoe shine stand, and clothes pressing stand, with his employees, including his son, Edwin, in a downtown office building, where they serviced the elite professionals of Madison, Wisconsin. John W. Hill earned the respect of the elite professionals of lawyers and doctors that he met and befriended in that downtown office building, while shining their shoes, and pressing their jackets. It was these relationships that enabled John W. Hill to secure a Bank Loan, and to purchase the historic grocery, which became the John W. Hill Grocery Store, as well as two other properties on the Triangle of Historic Properties of Dayton and Blount Streets. John W. Hill eventually became affluent enough to send all three of his children through College. Their oldest Daughter, Freddie Mae Hill, Sr., became the first African-American to graduate from the University of Wisconsin, Madison, Home Economics’ Department. Freddie Mae Hill went on to graduate school to receive her Master’s Degree from the University of Wisconsin.. Their son, Edwin J. W. Hill, Sr., attended Tuskegee Institute, and their youngest daughter, Chestena Hill Stout attended Wilberforce University. John W. Hill and his wife, Amanda, were prominent members, and great financial supporters of the St. Paul A.M.E.’s congregation, where John W. Hill was appointed, and served for many years, as a Church Trustee. John W. Hill latler purchased the property at 114 N. Blount Street, where his wife, Amanda Carmichael’s Mother, Ida Carmichael, and Brother, William Carmichael resided. William Carmichael was a World War I Veteran who died in the Veteran’s Hospital in Madison, Wisconsin from wounds that he suffered during World War I.
After the death of Ida Carmichael in 1947, John W. Hill started renting out the house at 114 N. Blount Street, as well as their duplex house at 118 N. Blount Street.