Volume 90, Number 1 - California Historical Society

At the Hights, Miller built four cabins: one for
receiving guests, one for his brother, one for his
mother, and one for sleeping and writing, which
he called the Abbey (above), after his absent wife,
Abbie Leland Miller, and Westminster Abbey,
final resting place for many of Miller’s heroes. The
central room, or “chapel,” was Miller’s office-cumbedroom.
The two wings on either side were the
“deaneries,” in one of which Miller regularly performed
an Indian rain chant.
California Historical Society, de Young Collection,
CHS2010.301.tif
Miller transformed what had been rugged land
into a forested slope with extensive rock walls,
stone terracing, small ponds, numerous fountains,
and a network of quixotic monuments, as detailed
in this sketch by his daughter Juanita Miller
(1880–1970). After his death, Juanita—described
in a newspaper account as “beautiful and very
unconventional”—sold souvenirs from one of the
cabins and converted another into a sanctuary
stocked with relics of her father.
Courtesy of Phoebe Cutler
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