Miller, William, Chapel and Ascension Rock

William Miller Chapel is a small Greek Revival church on a quiet county road in Low Hampton, close to the Vermont border. Built in 1848 by Miller, a local farmer and Baptist lay preacher, it is a one-story braced frame building with beveled siding, a slate roof, a pedimented facade with corner pilasters, and eight windows with stained glass fans. Inside, box pews, a paneled pulpit, hand-planed woodwork and Miller's rocking chair survive, and there is no electricity or central heating. Behind the chapel, Ascension Rock is where hundreds of Miller's followers reportedly gathered on October 22, 1844, expecting the Second Coming. When that did not occur, the Millerites split into groups that included the Advent Christians and the future Seventh-day Adventists. The chapel is valued as physical evidence of the start of the Advent Christian movement and of the religious ferment before the Civil War. A memorial service is still held there each year.