Severin Miller House

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Severin Miller House
Severin Miller House 02.jpg
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Location 2200 Telegraph Rd.
Davenport, Iowa
Coordinates 41°31′32″N90°36′38″W / 41.52556°N 90.61056°W / 41.52556; -90.61056 Coordinates: 41°31′32″N90°36′38″W / 41.52556°N 90.61056°W / 41.52556; -90.61056
Area 1 acre (0.40 ha)
Built 1868
MPS Davenport MRA
NRHP reference # 83002473 [1]
Added to NRHP July 7, 1983

The Severin Miller House and barn are historic buildings located in the West End of Davenport, Iowa, United States. They were listed together on the National Register of Historic Places in 1983. [1]

Davenport, Iowa City in Iowa, United States

Davenport is the county seat of Scott County in Iowa and is located along the Mississippi River on the eastern border of the state. It is the largest of the Quad Cities, a metropolitan area with a population estimate of 382,630 and a CSA population of 474,226; it is the 90th largest CSA in the nation. Davenport was founded on May 14, 1836 by Antoine Le Claire and was named for his friend George Davenport, a former English sailor who served in the U.S. Army during the War of 1812, served as a supplier Fort Armstrong, worked as a fur trader with the American Fur Company, and was appointed a quartermaster with the rank of colonel during the Black Hawk War. According to the 2010 census, the city had a population of 99,685. The city appealed this figure, arguing that the Census Bureau missed a section of residents, and that its total population was more than 100,000. The Census Bureau estimated Davenport's 2011 population to be 100,802.

National Register of Historic Places federal list of historic sites in the United States

The National Register of Historic Places (NRHP) is the United States federal government's official list of districts, sites, buildings, structures, and objects deemed worthy of preservation for their historical significance. A property listed in the National Register, or located within a National Register Historic District, may qualify for tax incentives derived from the total value of expenses incurred preserving the property.

Contents

Severin Miller

Severin Miller was born in Prussia on October 17, 1824, the son of Bartholomew and Anna Marie Miller. [2] He was raised and educated there, and learned the machinist trade from his father. In 1846 at the age of 22, he immigrated to the United States. He landed in New York City and initially settled in Philadelphia. He moved to St. Louis, Missouri and in 1850 he moved again to Davenport. He found work as a machinist in all these places. In 1852 he purchased property on the corner of Second and Gaines Streets. He returned to St. Louis briefly before returning to Davenport in 1857 when he built a shop and home on the property he bought in 1852. Miller mainly did repair work on farm equipment. His business expanded to the manufacture of pumps and a foundry. He sold the business in 1875.

Prussia state in Central Europe between 1525–1947

Prussia was a historically prominent German state that originated in 1525 with a duchy centred on the region of Prussia on the southeast coast of the Baltic Sea. It was de facto dissolved by an emergency decree transferring powers of the Prussian government to German Chancellor Franz von Papen in 1932 and de jure by an Allied decree in 1947. For centuries, the House of Hohenzollern ruled Prussia, successfully expanding its size by way of an unusually well-organised and effective army. Prussia, with its capital in Königsberg and from 1701 in Berlin, decisively shaped the history of Germany.

New York City Largest city in the United States

The City of New York, often called New York City (NYC) or simply New York (NY), is the most populous city in both the state of New York and the United States. With an estimated 2017 population of 8,622,698 distributed over a land area of about 302.6 square miles (784 km2), New York is also the most densely populated major city in the United States. Located at the southern tip of the state of New York, the city is the center of the New York metropolitan area, the largest metropolitan area in the world by urban landmass and one of the world's most populous megacities, with an estimated 20,320,876 people in its 2017 Metropolitan Statistical Area and 23,876,155 residents in its Combined Statistical Area. A global power city, New York City has been described as the cultural, financial, and media capital of the world, and exerts a significant impact upon commerce, entertainment, research, technology, education, politics, tourism, art, fashion, and sports. The city's fast pace has inspired the term New York minute. Home to the headquarters of the United Nations, New York is an important center for international diplomacy.

Philadelphia Largest city in Pennsylvania, United States

Philadelphia, sometimes known colloquially as Philly, is the largest city in the U.S. state and Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, and the sixth-most populous U.S. city, with a 2017 census-estimated population of 1,580,863. Since 1854, the city has been coterminous with Philadelphia County, the most populous county in Pennsylvania and the urban core of the eighth-largest U.S. metropolitan statistical area, with over 6 million residents as of 2017. Philadelphia is also the economic and cultural anchor of the greater Delaware Valley, located along the lower Delaware and Schuylkill Rivers, within the Northeast megalopolis. The Delaware Valley's population of 7.2 million ranks it as the eighth-largest combined statistical area in the United States.

In 1862 he married Christiania Baussmann and they raised four children. He built his home on Telegraph Road in 1868 in what was then a rural area outside of the city. The house remained with the Miller's daughters until they died in the mid-1940s. [3]

Architecture

Barn Severin Miller Barn.JPG
Barn

This house and the barn behind it are two of a very few vernacular stone structures that remain from Davenport's early decades. [4] The house has a symmetrical five-bay front reminiscent of the Greek Revival style. The four round-arch windows all feature a keystone and above them are slabs that suggest sills of small attic windows that were never installed. The possible inspiration for the house was the architecture of Miller's native Prussia. [4] There are plans for another wing, but they were abandoned when Christiania Miller died in 1871. The Miller Foundry produced the metal work used throughout the house. An addition was built on the back of the house sometime after 1982, which replaced a previous addition. [3]

Vernacular architecture category of architecture based on local needs, construction materials and reflecting local traditions

Vernacular architecture is an architectural style that is designed based on local needs, availability of construction materials and reflecting local traditions. Traditionally, vernacular architecture did not use formally-schooled architects, but relied on the design skills and tradition of local builders, who were rarely given any attribution for the work. However, since the late 19th century many professional architects have worked in this style and interest in vernacular architecture now forms part of a broader interest in sustainable design.

Bay (architecture) space defined by the vertical piers, in a building

In architecture, a bay is the space between architectural elements, or a recess or compartment. Bay comes from Old French baee, meaning an opening or hole.

Greek Revival architecture architectural movement of the late 18th and early 19th centuries

The Greek Revival was an architectural movement of the late 18th and early 19th centuries, predominantly in Northern Europe and the United States. A product of Hellenism, it may be looked upon as the last phase in the development of Neoclassical architecture. The term was first used by Charles Robert Cockerell in a lecture he gave as Professor of Architecture to the Royal Academy of Arts, London in 1842.

Behind the house sits a rubble stone barn. The structure is typical of barns found in the German communities in Pennsylvania and other eastern states. [4] It features triangular, wood relieving arches and the gable ends covered with vertical wood planks.

Rubble masonry rough, unhewn stone set in mortar, but not laid in regular courses

Rubble masonry is rough, unhewn building stone set in mortar, but not laid in regular courses. It may appear as the outer surface of a wall or may fill the core of a wall which is faced with unit masonry such as brick or cut stone.

Pennsylvania State of the United States of America

Pennsylvania, officially the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, is a state located in the northeastern and Mid-Atlantic regions of the United States. The Appalachian Mountains run through its middle. The Commonwealth is bordered by Delaware to the southeast, Maryland to the south, West Virginia to the southwest, Ohio to the west, Lake Erie and the Canadian province of Ontario to the northwest, New York to the north, and New Jersey to the east.

Gable Generally triangular portion of a wall between the edges of intersecting roof pitches

A gable is the generally triangular portion of a wall between the edges of intersecting roof pitches. The shape of the gable and how it is detailed depends on the structural system used, which reflects climate, material availability, and aesthetic concerns. A gable wall or gable end more commonly refers to the entire wall, including the gable and the wall below it.

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References

  1. 1 2 National Park Service (2009-03-13). "National Register Information System". National Register of Historic Places . National Park Service.
  2. ↑ "Biographies". Scott County Iowa USGenWeb Project. Retrieved 2010-11-08.
  3. 1 2 Alma Gaul (May 2, 2015). "Relic of early Davenport settlement is a folk art showplace". Quad-City Times . Davenport . Retrieved 2015-03-02.
  4. 1 2 3 Martha Bowers; Marlys Svendsen-Roesler. "Severin Miller House". National Park Service . Retrieved 2014-11-04. with photos

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