The West T. Hill Community Theatre was established in September 1980. Originally named for its location, the group was later renamed in honor of its founder, Dr. West T. Hill, a former chairman of the Dramatic Arts Department at Centre College in Danville, Kentucky.

In April 2000, KET's television program Kentucky Life profiled the 20th anniversary of the West T. Hill Theatre, paying homage to its founder:

West T. Hill Jr. loved drama and was devoted to the theater. He was a historian and scholar of the art form who in 1971 published The Theatre in Early Kentucky, 1790-1820. His book is the definitive source of information on that period, when hundreds of theatrical productions brought entertainment and culture to what was then America’s western frontier. But Hill was also a practitioner. Long after he retired from Centre College, and even after illness forced him to work from a wheelchair, he loved to produce and direct community theatre.

~Kentucky Life, Episode 403