The Miller House and Garden Tour has long been a must-see attraction for Columbus residents and out-of-town visitors.
This year alone, about 5,500 people have visited the Modernistic home where the late industrialist and philanthropist J. Irwin Miller and his wife, arts patron Xenia Miller, had lived.
So when the Columbus Area Visitors Center began offering a special Christmas at Miller House Tour, it became a hot ticket.
The opportunity to see the home, designed in the 1950s by a famous Finnish architect, and its decorative lights at night resulted in three planned 6:30 p.m., 12-person tours through late December selling out quickly.
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In fact, interest was so great that a 6 p.m. tour of seven people was added for Friday’s debut. Visitors Center officials said they will be keeping an eye on demand and could add additional nighttime tours. Regular daytime tours are still available.
Several residents who had heard about the famous house all their lives, but had never entered the National Historic Landmark, seized the opportunity for the first nighttime tour Friday.
Visitor reaction
Pat Tovey and her daughter-in-law, Julie Tovey, were among the first to arrive at the visitors center, the starting point for the tour.
“Julie really wanted me to see it so she brought me and I am very excited,” Pat Tovey said.
She added that pictures of the house’s interior and displays of some artifacts are all she had ever seen.
“The Miller House has always been a part of my life and I wanted her to see it,” Julie Tovey said.
Her late father, Columbus resident Lorren White, was commissioned by the Millers to paint their home.
“He was the only one they would let paint anything,” Julie Tovey said.
J. Irwin and Xenia Simons Miller commissioned their 6,838-square-foot home to be built in 1953. Designed by Eero Saarinen, the house was completed in 1957.
It was designed as a year-round home for the Millers and their five children, ages 2 to 14. It was also designed as futuristic architectural accomplishment.
“The miracle of this house, the beauty of this home is in what you see, but it is also in the things you do not see,” said volunteer tour guide Chad Heimlich, who escorted the first group of seven visitors through the home.
The house is maintained as it was during the years the Millers occupied it, Heimlich said. After Xenia Miller died in 2008, the Miller House was willed to the Indianapolis Museum of Art. The IMA maintains the house and the local visitors center organizes the tours.
The group oohed and aahed as they saw a Magnolia tree decorated with lights outside, and a decorated Christmas tree welcomed the group inside. It was decorated with the original ornaments used by Xenia Miller for the family’s holidays.
Centuries-old nativity scenes collected by Xenia Miller also were on display throughout the living areas of the house.
Perhaps the most-often photographed feature of the Miller House, the conversation pit in the living area, was a favorite on the tour for Columbus resident Lynnette Armstrong, who was making her first trip to visit.
“Of course, I have seen the photographs of it, but it feels so different when you are standing there. I just wanted for us to all go down there and sit and talk,” she said.
The colorful, sunken seating area was one of the many futuristic features in the home developed by world-famous interior designer Alexander Girard.
The Millers commissioned Girard to do the original interior decor of the home and maintained the original designs throughout the 51 years they lived in the home.
John and April Clark traveled from Greenwood to take the tour. April had learned about the Miller House when she was an art major and John had learned about it when he was studying engineering.
“We have both wanted to see the house for ourselves for a long time,” April Clark said.
John listened closely to details of how the house was built while April busily examined the drapery, carpets and artwork throughout the house.
Columbus residents David and Cherrie Cowan and their daughter Jacqueline also toured the Miller House for the first time.
“My wife has lived in Columbus her whole life and has never been in the house, so I wanted her to see it. I am in construction so I am finding it really interesting, too. It is amazing how the different aspects of the construction of the house are seamless. It is also interesting how the interior design of the house meshes with the exterior landscaping,” David Cowan said.
A student of anthropology at Indiana University in Bloomington, Jacqueline Cowan was amazed at the many artifacts displayed throughout the Miller House.
“I am not so interested in the architecture as I am interested in the art. The Russian Nativity and the 15th century chalices were amazing,” she said.
The art and decor were especially interesting to Alice Shen, an instructor in the English department at the University of Southern Indiana, who is also involved with the school’s theater department.
Shen was captivated by the colors and designs as she photographed items along the tour.
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The Christmas at Miller House Tour dates for Dec. 14 and 28 are now sold-out. However, Columbus Area Visitors Center officials said they are keeping an eye on demand and may add additional tours. An announcement would be made on Facebook (Visit Columbus Indiana) and on the center’s website (columbus.in.us). The tour costs $50.
Some openings for daytime tours of the Miller House and Garden are available. Tours are available at 12:45 and 2:45 p.m. Fridays and Saturdays in December. Cost is $25 per person.
Tours begin and end at the Columbus Area Visitors Center, 506 Fifth St., and transportation is provided to and from the Miller House.
Only adults and children over the age of 10 may take the tours.
Information, Columbus Visitors’ Center at 812-378-2622 or columbus.in.us.
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