Courtesy Indianapolis Museum of Art

Other landscape features include an apple orchard just east of the main entrance drive, planted in a conventional grid. The orchard was both ornamental and practical as Mrs. Miller was known to use the apples for pies. Also in this eastern section of the property is a small office building (originally a maintenance shed and small greenhouse) and south of the orchard-office area is a lawn with rows of white oaks. The property is edged with what has become an iconic landscape feature —a staggered arborvitae hedge that has been photographed as often as the property’s honey locust allée.

In 2000, the Miller property became the first National Historic Landmark listed for a still-living landscape architect and was included in the multiple property designation titled, “Modern Architecture and Landscape Architecture in Bartholomew County, 1942-1999.” The multiple property designation also included Saarinen and Kiley’s nearby work at Irwin Union Bank and Trust and the North Christian Church, executed between 1954 and 1964.

The house continued to serve as the Miller family home until the death of Mrs. Miller in 2008. The Miller House and Garden is one of America’s most important expressions of Modernism in a residential setting that fully integrates architecture, landscape architecture, and interior design. It represents the work of leading practitioners in their respective fields in collaboration with sophisticated clients in a unified design that has been maintained with meticulous care and respect for the creators’ aesthetic intentions.

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