James Rupert Miller (June 27, 1869 – August 23, 1946) was an

architect An architect is a person who plans, designs, and oversees the construction of buildings. To practice architecture means to provide services in connection with the design of buildings and the space within the site surrounding the buildings that h ...

active in

San Francisco San Francisco, officially the City and County of San Francisco, is a commercial, Financial District, San Francisco, financial, and Culture of San Francisco, cultural center of Northern California. With a population of 827,526 residents as of ...

California California () is a U.S. state, state in the Western United States that lies on the West Coast of the United States, Pacific Coast. It borders Oregon to the north, Nevada and Arizona to the east, and shares Mexico–United States border, an ...

in the first half of the 20th century. Miller gained prominence after the

1906 San Francisco earthquake At 05:12 AM Pacific Time Zone, Pacific Standard Time on Wednesday, April 18, 1906, the coast of Northern California was struck by a major earthquake with an estimated Moment magnitude scale, moment magnitude of 7.9 and a maximum Mercalli inte ...

when his firm was one among many called upon to rebuild the stricken city. After serving apprentice and draftsman to several prominent San Francisco architects in the late 19th century, Miller formed his own firm in 1902. Miller joined two prestigious social clubs: the Corinthian Yacht Club of Tiburon and The Family. In 1906, Miller partnered with George T. De Colmesnil to better tackle the many reconstruction tasks at hand. Miller and Colmesnil designed the Corinthian Yacht Club's

Colonial Revival The Colonial Revival architectural style seeks to revive elements of American colonial architecture. The beginnings of the Colonial Revival style are often attributed to the Centennial Exhibition of 1876, which reawakened Americans to the arch ...

clubhouse in 1912. Together, they rebuilt the City of Paris department store in 1909.NoeHill in San Francisco. California Historical Landmarks in San Francisco. ''Landmark 876: City of Paris Building ''
/ref> Miller and Colmesnil hired teenaged Timothy L. Pflueger in 1907 to help as a draftsman in the office. Miller saw promise in Pflueger and gave him his first assignment: Our Lady of the Wayside Church in 1912. Colmesnil left the partnership in 1913. Miller continued on his own, with Pflueger on staff. The

Metropolitan Life Insurance Company MetLife, Inc. is the holding corporation for the Metropolitan Life Insurance Company (MLIC), better known as MetLife, and its affiliates. MetLife is among the largest global providers of insurance, annuities, and employee benefit programs, w ...

became an important client, with near-continuous expansion of their Neoclassic 600 Stockton Street location in San Francisco from 1914 through 1919 (the building now houses a

Ritz-Carlton The Ritz-Carlton Hotel Company, LLC is an American multinational company that operates the luxury hotel chain known as The Ritz-Carlton. The company has 108 luxury hotels and resorts in 30 countries and territories with 29,158 rooms, in addit ...

hotel.) In 1923, after working full-time on the Castro Theatre project, Pflueger was given full partnership with Miller. Miller moved to Burlingame in the 1920s with his wife Florence G. Miller. Miller retired in 1937 at age 68.

References

1869 births 1946 deaths Canadian architects Architecture in the San Francisco Bay Area Architects from San Francisco Canadian emigrants to the United States {{canada-architect-stub