717 1st St S
Stillwater, MN 55082, USA

John and Elizabeth Miller House

The original owners of this elegant, two-and-a-half-story Queen Anne style residence were John L. and Elizabeth Miller, who built the house circa 1885. Miller was a carpenter and house mover, who likely built the house in the Italianate style. In 1890, after Johns death, Elizabeth sold the house and moved in with her son Benjamin S. Miller at 615 South Broadway Street. In 1911, this house was damaged by a large fire which cost an estimated $2,514.92 (Donald Empson, The East Half of the Churchill, Nelson & Slaughter Addition Residential Area, 2003:33). It was during this time that the house was reportedly renovated from an Italianate box to its present Queen Anne form. Today, the house rests on its original limestone foundation and has clapboard siding, a steeply pitched, irregularly shaped cross gable roof with a front facing gable, and a brick chimney centered on the ridgeline. The asymmetrical faade, wraparound porch and the two-story polygonal bay on the side elevation are all characteristics of the Queen Anne style. The house also features one-light fixed leaded glass windows and tall and narrow one-over-one double-hung windows with bracketed wood lintels. The classical columns on the front porch are exclusive to the Free Classic subtype of the Queen Anne style. From 1917 to 1929, Frank H. Welch resided in the house. Welch owned the F.M. Welch Printing Company which was located at 224 South Main Street. His company published of the Stillwater Messenger. In the late 1920s, Welch was the manager of the St. Croix Poster Advertising Company and the Acme Poster Advertising Company. In 1930, the Welchs moved to St. Cloud. Ernest Schad owned the house in the 1940s and 1950s. More recently, a one-story, gable-roofed addition with screen porch that respects the design, scale, and materials of the house was added to the rear of the house. Offset to the side and rear of the house is a large, modern, one-and-a-half-story, clapboard sided garage with a side gable roof that features a front gable dormer with paired one-over-one windows that is reminiscent of a carriage house.