Robert Miller Home and Farm - Lawrence, Kansas - Homesteads on Waymarking.com

The Robert H. Miller home is a two-story, rectangular brick house built in 1858. A one-and-a-half story ell was added to the rear in 1863. The house stands facing north on a wooded five-acre tract which has become surrounded by suburban development in recent years.

The house has a symmetrical, three-bay facade with a center doorway. An early photograph shows that the house originally had a one-bay-wide, one-story Italianate porch. The porch has been replaced twice, with the present one dating from the 1950s. The six-over-six double-hung windows are all original with many original panes. The louvered shutters are also mostly original. The window openings have flat stone sills and lintels. The house originally had a molded wood box cornice with a plain frieze, which returned for about three feet on the gable ends. The horizontal portions of this cornice have been removed, leaving only the raking cornice at the gables.

The first floor plan originally had four rooms: two large rectangular rooms at the northeast and southwest corners and two smaller rooms at the northwest and southeast corners. In recent years the wall between the northeast and northwest rooms was removed to create a larger parlor space. The house has no central hall on the ground floor. The front door opens into the western end of the parlor, where a steep stairway rises to the second floor. The second story originally had a traditional plan of four rooms with a central hallway. A bathroom was later added at the south end of the hall, and closets were added to the bedrooms.

The gable-roofed ell on the western end of the south side of the house is now used as the kitchen, with the half-story above used for storage. A screened back porch has been added to the eastern side of the ell.

A cellar extends under the entire house, walled with limestone. In recent years the dirt floor has been partially paved in brick and concrete.

The property includes several outbuildings dating from the late nineteenth or early twentieth centuries, including a milk house (now garage), chicken house, barn, and brick privy.

Camouflaged in the suburban east Lawrence neighborhood stands the Miller House, the largest item in Dennis Dailey's history collection. The house, built in 1858, was never meant to draw attention, and is perhaps why it survives as one of the area's only remnants of the Underground Railroad.

The Miller House, 1111 E. 19th St., served as a hideout for escaped slaves, a pit stop for Quantrill and his band of raiders and, now, is home to retired professor Dennis Dailey and his wife.

When anti-slavery activist Robert Miller moved his family to Lawrence from South Carolina they built a farmhouse that served as part of the Underground Railroad. Escaped slaves would hide in a treed area to the east known as Miller's Grove or sleep in the smokehouse before moving onto freedom.

"I've always had kind of an interest in history, just in general," Dailey said. "Like in college I was interested in history classes, but when we began to live in this home, it reeked of history. It just reeks of history and I became fascinated with that."

Even today the house is visited by the decedents of slaves who come to explore this Lawrence landmark.

"They found out about this place down at the visitor center or something and they just drive in. I go out and welcome them and tell them the story and it is absolutely astounding watching their experience at this place, tears - it's just amazing," Dailey said.

The history of the Miller House is evident to anyone who walks through the rooms or around the five-acre plot of land. A barn and open landscape, unorthodox in the modern suburban setting, testify to the legacy of this historic site.

"In the summer, the trees get real full and there's less people here. You can stand out here and it feels like you're in the country," Dailey said.

One special characteristic that distinguishes this house from other historic sites in Lawrence is that it predates Quantrill's Raid - a sacking of Lawrence that burned many of the community's buildings. But the residence has history with William Quantrill himself, a Confederate guerrilla leader.

The Miller House was Quantrill's first stop on his way to Lawrence, revisiting the site after he was at the residence several weeks before on what might have been a trip to scout the community.

"They fed him a meal. There's some evidence that he spent the night. In other words they befriended him, and he chose not to kill them," Dailey said.

Quantrill's visit is well documented, even recounted in a letter written by William Miller years later that Dailey reads to visiting elementary school students, which he said gave him chills each time.

"So sometimes you're sitting here thinking, 'The man spent the night.' That's a little weird," Dailey said.

In addition to dealing with the sometimes sinister secrets of the house, Dailey and his wife are responsible for the upkeep of their 150-year-old house. They replaced the entire west wall and restored the fireplace to its original visage as part of the many investments the couple has made to maintain their home's integrity.

The Miller family lived at this residence for nearly 100 years before the house was sold to the Eller family and finally the Dailey's. Dailey said he hoped he can continue the legacy for another generation of Lawrence residents.

"My kids will be living here. The foundation of this house is remarkably solid," Dailey said. "The work that we've just put into it to restore it, if people wanted to live here another 100 years they certainly could without any difficulty, no difficulty at all."