Ezekial and Mary Jane Miller House
Houston, Harris County, Texas
Marker Inscription
Came to Texas about 1900 and began a successful timber business. Of Scotch-Irish descent, Miller became known as a prominent merchant and civic leader in Houston. He had this residence built in 1905 for his wife, Mary Jane, and their five children. The home is a significant example of the blending of Queen Anne and colonial revival styles by early 20th-century Houston builders. Prominent features include its corner tower and dormer window. Recorded Texas Historic Landmark - 1984
Erected by Texas Historical Commission
The Story
Around 1900, Ezekial Miller arrived in Houston and built a thriving timber business, becoming a well-known merchant and civic leader in a city then booming on lumber and commerce. In 1905 he built this home for his wife Mary Jane and their five children. Its corner tower, dormer window, and mix of Queen Anne exuberance with restrained Colonial Revival lines typify the work of Houston's early-20th-century builders.
Why it matters
The house captures the prosperity of a rising Southern commercial city and the distinctive residential architecture that Houston's merchant class built as the town grew into a metropolis.
Own a business near here? Add it to the map.
Related people
- · Ezekial Miller
- · Mary Jane Miller
Themes & tags
Nearby & related markers
Harper House
Houston, TX
In 1905, a rising Houston industrialist named Benjamin Harper built this home in the new Westmoreland district using mail-order plans from George Barber, one of the era's most popular architects of pattern-book houses. Its late Queen Anne dress — wraparound porch, decorative gable, Doric columns — matched Barber's published design 'Suburban Beauty,' a reminder of how middle- and upper-class Americans could order architectural fashion straight from a magazine. Harper himself embodied Houston's early-twentieth-century growth, running Union Iron Works and helping lead a local bank.
Edwin and Daphne Neville House
Houston, TX
This two-and-a-half-story brick Tudor Revival residence was designed in 1914 by Houston architect Birdsall P. Briscoe, and it still keeps its original floor plan, half-timbered gables, steep hipped roof, and one-story brick loggias. It was home to Edwin L. Neville, a partner at Dorrance & Company, and his wife Daphne Palmer, both active in Houston civic life through the Community Chest, the Junior League, and area hospitals and chapels. The house stayed in the Neville family until 1949.
James L. Autry House
Houston, TX
James L. Autry came to Corsicana in 1876 and studied law just as Texas's first oil discoveries were transforming the state's economy. As chief counsel for the Texas Company—later Texaco—he helped invent the new field of petroleum law. In 1912 he commissioned the noted firm Sanguinet and Staats to build this Neoclassical home, distinguished by its double galleries, fluted Doric columns, and tile roof.
F.C.L. and Emilie Neuhaus House
Houston, TX
Houston businessman Franz Carl Ludwig Neuhaus and his wife Emilie commissioned the noted firm Sanguinet and Staats to design this Colonial Revival house in 1909, completing it the following year. Classical touches — a Doric-entablature portico, arched sidelights, and a porte cochere — mark it as fine early-twentieth-century craftsmanship. It was the first home built on Courtlandt Place, one of Houston's early planned residential enclaves, and stayed in the family until 1945.