John Campbell Miller: Builder of Fancy Homes in Rural West Virginia

Beautifully illustrated and with charming detail, this book documents fifty-nine houses and public structures of builder John Campbell Miller primarily in southwestern Monroe County, West Virginia, which were constructed between 1886 and 1923. They range from the high Victorian Queen Anne style to the twentieth century Colonial Revival and Craftsman styles, and many are elegant farmhouses that stand out from the bucolic landscape.

Readers gain a glimpse of the era when large farming families were the norm and horse-drawn wagons were giving way to motorized vehicles. Organized by community, this book contains over two hundred photographs, roughly half of which are vintage, and a text that covers the stylistic elements as well as the family stories of each. These details have been resurrected through visits and interviews with current residents as well as from the files of the Monroe County Historical Society. The identification of Miller’s buildings is based on a list and photo file maintained over the last hundred years by generations of his family.