Laura Coombs Hills was born September 7, 1859, in Newburyport, Massachusetts, the third of five children of Mary Gerrish Hills and Philip Knapp Hills [REF].
In the early 1900s, Hills would establish her studio in Boston, but she continued to spend her summers at a house known as the Goldfish that she built in Newburyport and shared with one of her sisters [REF].