{"nrhp_refnum":"82004542","name":"Miller, A. J., House","other_names":["Miller-Hemp House"],"category":"building","location":{"address":"VA 639","address_restricted":false,"city":"Middlebrook","county":"Augusta County","state":"VA","lat":38.02362313800006,"lon":-79.23227934199997,"geom_source":"nps_gis"},"listed_date":"1982-07-08","is_nhl":false,"nhl_designated_date":null,"areas_of_significance":["Art"],"significance_levels":["state"],"summary":{"what_it_is":"A brick Italianate farmhouse on State Route 693 near Middlebrook in southwestern Augusta County, Virginia, built about 1884 on a farm tract bought by Ananias \"Jack\" Miller in 1874.","why_significant":"The house holds some of the most extensive and best-preserved work of a rural itinerant painter in late 19th-century Virginia. G. B. Jones signed and dated the hallway paintings June 17, 1892. His landscapes, vignettes, wood graining and marbleizing show a lingering local tradition of painted interiors.","narrative":"Near Middlebrook in southwestern Augusta County stands a brick farmhouse built around 1884 for Ananias \"Jack\" Miller, who bought the surrounding land in 1874. It is one of several Italianate brick houses built locally in the late 19th century, with a three-bay facade, bracketed cornice, carved entrance trim and a low hipped metal roof. Its main distinction lies inside. In 1892 an itinerant painter, G. B. Jones, decorated the central passage with mountain and lake landscapes, hunting and fishing scenes, a Buffalo Bill portrait and Victorian vignettes, and signed and dated the work. He also painted room names over the doors and grained and marbleized woodwork and mantels upstairs. The interior otherwise survives with few changes, including eight mantels and a turned staircase. Outbuildings across the road include barns, a granary, a carriage house and a chicken house. The house is valued as one of the best surviving examples of rural painted decoration in Virginia.","period_of_significance":"1884","architect_builder":"unknown (painter G. B. Jones decorated the interior in 1892)","architectural_style":"Italianate","criteria":[],"status_note":"Occupied as a private residence; interior survives with few alterations, though some painted decoration has been painted over and the north rooms were remodeled into an apartment.","vacant_flag":false,"machine_generated":true,"model":"claude-sonnet-5-5","prompt_version":"v1.0-2026-10-29","generated_at":"2026-10-29 02:51:56.901108-05","source_pdf":"https://s3.amazonaws.com/NARAprodstorage/opastorage/live/93/6796/41679693/content/electronic-records/rg-079/NPS_VA/82004542.pdf"},"photo":{"url_800":"https://nationalhistoricalregister.com/media/82004542/af4d0f9f0b-800.webp","url_1600":"https://nationalhistoricalregister.com/media/82004542/af4d0f9f0b-1600.webp","licence":"Public domain","author":"Nyttend","credit_html":"<a href=\"https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:A.J._Miller_House,_Augusta_County.jpg\" rel=\"noopener\">Nyttend</a>, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons","source_page":"https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:A.J._Miller_House,_Augusta_County.jpg"},"district":null,"sources":{"nps_snapshot_date":"2026-05-22","nara_catalog":"https://catalog.archives.gov/id/41679693","wikipedia":"https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/A._J._Miller_House","wikidata":"https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q14711951"},"indexable":true,"url":"https://nationalhistoricalregister.com/virginia/augusta-county/miller-a-j-house-82004542/"}