Although we finished our series on current Jacksonville Queen Anne style homes in our Walk through History blog and History Trivia posts, there’s one more Jacksonville home that used to be a Queen Anne—although you would never know that based on its current 1950s “ranch-style” look. The original 1893 house built at 110 East Main Street was an elaborate 2 ½ story Queen Anne style home constructed from designs featured in one of famed architect George F. Barber’s “pattern” books. Built for the family of “Gunsmith” Miller about the time of his death, the house was described as a “very tasty design” with five-rooms, exclusive of the hall, bathroom, and pantry.
Miller, probably the town’s most successful and longest established gunsmith, had purchased the entire block 10 years earlier. The Miller family occupied the house into the early 1930s. After a fire destroyed the top 2 stories in 1944, the owner at the time reconstructed the house, restoring the ground floor and adding the “ell” typical of then-current post-War housing styles.