Allan Miller House

“As significant as the original Miller House design and architect are, its state of preservation sets this residence apart from most of its celebrated contemporaries. Despite the interest and attention given to the Prairie style as an important twentieth-century movement, few of the houses survive in a condition by which the scope of the design characteristics can be appreciated.”

“A two-story frame house, it is distinctive among neighboring bungalows and other traditionally designed houses. Beyond its visual distinction on South Paxton Avenue, however, the Miller House is part of a design heritage important not only to Chicago but of international significance.”

“They believed that reliance on previous designs implied pre-ordained notions of what a building should look like. These architects and their successors, including John Van Bergen, looked at each job as a unique set of problems--client needs, budget, materials, site, and other factors--requiring unique solutions.”

“Standing virtually unaltered from its appearance when it was built, the Miller House has been recognized by the National Register of Historic Places as a representative Prairie School work by an important architect of that movement.”

“John Van Bergen The Allan Miller House is the only known extant work in Chicago by noted Prairie School architect John Shellette Van Bergen (1885-1969), a curious circumstance given the fact that Van Bergen maintained an architectural practice in the Chicago area for over four decades.”

“With little or no interest in said classical for our age in America, I somehow passed the examination and received my Illinois architectural license in 1911. The beginning of Van Bergen's independent practice dates to 1912, and for the next decade his work evinced the varying influences of Griffin, Wright, and Drummond.”

“Little is known about Allan Miller, who commissioned the house. In 1911 and 1912 he worked as an independent advertising agent and resided on the South Side. Miller joined an engraving and advertising publishing firm, Meyer & Both Company, in 1914, serving as director and secretary.”

“(The Prairie School: Frank Lloyd Wright and His Midwest Contemporaries, p. 126). Responding to the opportunities of a wide lot (75 feet x 125 feet) and a client of apparently sufficient means, Van Bergen took Wright's basic plan and created a highly individual design.”

“When Wright unexpectedly closed his Oak Park practice later that year, Van Bergen found himself as one of the two remaining studio members responsible for completing unfinished projects in the office, ably demonstrating his largely self-taught skills in design and construction.”

“The description is applicable to Van Bergen's design outlook throughout his career. The stratified limestone veneers of his later work--most notably in Highland Park, Winnetka, and Wilmette--demonstrates the architect's commitment to indigenous designs, as formulated in his early Prairie works.”