If this house looks like a Southern plantation house, it may be because it is modeled after Mary Kenney Miller’s childhood home in Virginia.  Her husband, Fred O. Miller, was a successful business owner who went from working in a single shoe store in 1902 McMinnville to establishing the Miller Department Stores and the Miller Bros Wholesale Co. which expanded to 15 outlets throughout the Northwest with a total of 500 employees. A notable feature of the Miller stores was the length of service of their employees.

The resulting prosperity of the family was reflected in breaking ground for their grand Colonial Revival: Neo-Classical Irvington home in 1914 by builder John C. Walker.  Colonial Revival was popular in Oregon from 1890-1915. The 1876 Philadelphia Centennial Exhibition called attention to America’s colonial period.  Architects were reminded of the order, restraint, and elegance of classical architecture.  A decade later a notable New York firm produced its first Colonial Revival mansion which set the stage for a revival of classical styles.  When this house was listed on the National Register in 2005, the architect had still not been identified.  Recently, thanks to the availability of full-text searches in the Oregonian on line archive (see www.multcolib.org for more information), we now know that this house was designed by Raymond N. Hockenberry, who was responsible for a number of fine Irvington homes as well as the Crater Lake National Park Lodge.  See another Hockenberry design from the 2003 Tour.

The Miller house was conceived in this milieu and is an intact representative of local Colonial Revival: Neo-Classical.  Although the house design harkens to Mary’s Southern roots, the style was again popular and fit in with the Irvington neighborhood of early 20th century Oregon.  The formally symmetrical front façade, low pitched roof, ionic columns supporting the portico are elements of that style.  The colossal two-story portico emphasizes the centrality of the design.  Elegant plantings and landscaping complement the grand dimensions of this home.  The basaltic rock wall along the sidewalk conveys a feeling of permanence and solidity.

Both the exterior and interior retain a high degree of integrity.  The vestibule, with its marble tiled floors and chandelier, opens into a large foyer and stairs to the upper floors.  The foyer features oak floors, 6” painted dado baseboard and 12” mahogany crown molding.  East is the living room; west, the library and staircase; and north is the dining room.  The open, curved mahogany stairway leads to the four bedrooms, an office that was originally a small library, two bathrooms, and an enclosed sun porch off the second floor.  Tucked underneath the main stairs is a powder room with the original hex tile flooring and sink.  Original cast iron radiators remain the central heating of the house.

This grand house was created by and for the Miller family.  Their three daughters and a son grew up in this home.  Both Fred and Mary lived there until their deaths in 1934 and 1952 respectively.  Was Mary’s dream home true to the one she remembered from the old South?  Perhaps--the great Corinthian columns speak to a more leisurely time of carriages and mint juleps and stand to welcome generations yet to come.