Miller House | |
| |
Location | Virginia Rd., North White Plains, New York |
---|---|
Coordinates | 41°3′33″N73°46′15″W / 41.05917°N 73.77083°W |
Area | 1 acre (0.40 ha) |
Built | 1738 |
Built by | John Miller |
NRHP reference No. | 76001292 [1] |
Added to NRHP | September 29, 1976 |
The Elijah Miller House is a historic home in North White Plains in Westchester County, New York. The house is an 18th-century Rhode Island-style farmhouse that was used during the Revolutionary War by General George Washington as a headquarters command post during the Battle of White Plains. [2] The house, which is now a museum, was home to the average Colonial Westchester Ann and Elijah Miller family and contains many artifacts for public viewing. [3]
This Elijah Miller house originally sat on a 600-acre (2.4 km2) farm and was probably built by John Miller in 1738. John had eight children, one of them being Elijah who was born in 1728. Elijah married a local named Anne Fisher and in 1770, they moved into the Miller house. Eventually, they put an addition on the west end of the house that included a parlor with a corner fireplace, a bedroom with a fireplace, a small porch and two more bedrooms on the second floor of the new addition. Elijah Miller joined the Westchester County Militia and died in August 1776 while in camp. Two of his sons, John and Elijah, were also in the Westchester County Militia, both dying of fever in camp during December 1776. [4]
General George Washington occupied the house three times during the American Revolutionary War. The first was October 1776 as a command post during the Battle of White Plains, the second was the summer of 1778, and finally in 1781. Anne Miller, a widow, was General Washington's hostess during his stays. Anne would live to be 96 years old and eventually died in 1819. A Miller daughter, Sarah Miller Cornell, lived at the house until she died in 1838 at age 84. Other people would live at the house and farm the land, such as the last owner and former Armonk Postmaster, Charles Kaiser. [4]
After Westchester County purchased the house in July 1917, it was renovated and opened to the public on October 29, 1918. The house is currently a museum under the Westchester County Department of Parks, Recreation and Conservation. Outside of the house is an enormous sycamore tree which undoubtedly was there at the time of General Washington's visit. [4]
By the early 21st century the house was deteriorating from decades of neglect and was open to the public only on a very limited basis. In 2010 the county legislature passed a $1.2 million bond issue to finance its restoration. County executive Robert Astorino, who had supported preserving the building five years earlier as a member of the legislature, vetoed the measure, saying it should be supported by private funds. [5] Due to the hard work of Friends of the Miller House/Washington's Headquarters and Daughters of Liberty's Legacy, Westchester County in May 2017 announced that up to $2 million of funds will be made available to renovate the house. [6]
White Plains is a city in and the county seat of Westchester County, New York, United States. It is an inner suburb of New York City, and a commercial hub of Westchester County, a densely populated suburban county that is home to about one million people. White Plains is located in south-central Westchester County. Its downtown is 25 miles (40 km) north of Midtown Manhattan.
William Bradford was a lawyer and judge from Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, and the second United States Attorney General in 1794–1795.
The Battle of White Plains took place during the New York and New Jersey campaign of the American Revolutionary War on October 28, 1776, near White Plains, New York. Following the retreat of George Washington's Continental Army northward from New York City, British General William Howe landed troops in Westchester County, intending to cut off Washington's escape route. Alerted to this move, Washington retreated farther, establishing a position in the village of White Plains but failing to establish firm control over local high ground. Howe's troops drove Washington's troops from a hill near the village; following this loss, Washington ordered the Americans to retreat farther north.
Pierre Van Cortlandt was an American politician who served as the first lieutenant governor of New York.
Washington's Headquarters State Historic Site, also called Hasbrouck House, is located in Newburgh, New York, United States, overlooking the Hudson River. George Washington and his staff were headquartered in the house while commanding the Continental Army during the final year and a half of the American Revolutionary War; at 16 months and 19 days it was his longest tenure at any of his headquarters during the war.
The Steuben House is a noted example of Bergen Dutch sandstone architecture, located at New Bridge Landing on the Hackensack River in River Edge, in Bergen County, New Jersey, United States.
The Wallace House is a Georgian style historic house, which served as the headquarters of General George Washington during the second Middlebrook encampment (1778–79), located at 38 Washington Place, Somerville, Somerset County, New Jersey, United States. It was added to the National Register of Historic Places on December 2, 1970.
Pennsylvania was the site of many key events associated with the American Revolution and American Revolutionary War. The city of Philadelphia, then capital of the Thirteen Colonies and the largest city in the colonies, was a gathering place for the Founding Fathers who discussed, debated, developed, and ultimately implemented many of the acts, including signing the Declaration of Independence, that inspired and launched the revolution and the quest for independence from the British Empire.
The Jacob Purdy House was used as General George Washington's headquarters in 1778 and possibly in 1776 during the Battle of White Plains in the American Revolutionary War. Originally constructed by Samuel Horton, it was purchased by Jacob Purdy's father, Samuel Purdy in 1730. It came into the possession of Jacob Purdy about 1785, in the aftermath of the war when some of the family had fled as United Empire Loyalists.
Eastview is a business district and former hamlet in Mount Pleasant, Westchester County, New York, United States, located approximately 25 miles north of Midtown Manhattan. It was primarily residential, and had a post office, railroad station, and school. In the late 1920s, John D. Rockefeller Jr. purchased most of the hamlet's property and razed the buildings. The Hammond House, a National Register of Historic Places-listed farmhouse dating to the 1720s, is located in the district, on New York State Route 100C. Currently, dozens of commercial buildings have been developed in the area. The community is now most prominently known as the global headquarters for Regeneron Pharmaceuticals, which moved into a newly constructed campus in 2014.
The John Rider House is located on Main Street in Danbury, Connecticut, United States. It is a wooden frame house dating to the late 18th century.
The Wythe House is a historic house on the Palace Green in Colonial Williamsburg, in Williamsburg, Virginia, USA. Built in the 1750s, it was the home of George Wythe, signer of the Declaration of Independence and father of American jurisprudence. The property was declared a National Historic Landmark on April 15, 1970.
The General John Glover House is a National Historic Landmark at 11 Glover Square in Marblehead, Massachusetts. It is a 2+1⁄2-story gambrel-roofed colonial built in 1762 by John Glover (1732–1797), a local merchant, politician, and militia leader who gained fame for his military leadership in the American Revolutionary War. The house was declared a National Historic Landmark and added to the National Register of Historic Places in 1972, for its association with Glover, who lived here during the war years.
The Storm–Adriance–Brinckerhoff House is located on Beekman Road in East Fishkill, New York, United States. It is a wooden building in three parts, the oldest of which dates to the mid-18th century.
The former Smith Tavern is located on Bedford Road in the hamlet of Armonk, New York, United States. It is a red frame building dating to the late 18th century, one of the few left in a region that has rapidly suburbanized over the past century. The Smith family, for whom it is named, did not build it but owned it for most of the 19th century.
The Hammond House is located on Grasslands Road in the Eastview section of the town of Mount Pleasant, New York, United States. It is a wooden building whose oldest part dates to the 1720s, with latter additions during the 19th century. In 1980 it was added to the National Register of Historic Places.
Van Cortlandt Upper Manor House is a historic home of the van Cortlandt family located in Cortlandt Manor, Westchester County, New York. The original house was built about 1773 and subsequently enlarged and altered a number of times.
Jacobus Swartwout (1734–1827) was an early American landowner, statesman, and military leader. Swartwout served as a brigadier general in the Continental Army during the American Revolutionary War under General George Washington. He was a close ally of many key Founding Fathers of the United States, and a delegate to New York State's convention for ratification of the US Constitution.
Ivy Cottage is a historic residence located in Exton, a census-designated place in West Whiteland Township, Chester County, Pennsylvania. Built in 1799 by politician and soldier Richard Thomas, the cottage started out as a plain stone farmhouse in the double-door Georgian style. It underwent extensive renovations and embellishments in the Queen Anne style in 1881 followed by an award-winning restoration in 2019. It was listed on the National Register of Historic Places on November 9, 2018.