|
100 Sunset Park
Date Built: 1953 Style: Contemporary/Ranch Original Owners: William T. Miller (1911-1998) and Betty Robb Miller (1909-2005) |
On a trip from her home in Portland, Oregon, to Ithaca to visit friends, Franklin and Marshall department store clothing buyer Betty Robb met Cornell chemistry professor William T. Miller. During World War II, Miller had done critical research for the Manhattan Project developing the atom bomb. After the war, he was a key member of the Nobel Prize-winning department of polymer chemists at Cornell.
The couple married in July 1951 and built a low-slung contemporary Ranch-style home in the Western Slope section. Miller’s chemistry colleagues later recalled the unique qualities of the home and its gardens:
“The home that the Millers built next to Sunset Park in Cayuga Heights with its spectacular view of the Cayuga Lake valley was a tribute to their unusually good taste and to their passionate attention to detail. Here, Miller’s love of the most challenging problems was also shown by his outstanding success with prized varieties of grapes, walnut trees, persimmons, and espaliered pears.” Jerrold Meinwald, Charles F. Wilcox, and Fred W. McLafferty, "William T. Miller,” Cornell University Faculty Memorial Statement, 1998.
The Millers hosted many Cornellians in their gracious home, and Betty Miller was an active community volunteer as chair of the Service League, president of the Cornell Campus Club, and committee member overseeing the construction of McGraw House, among other achievements. Betty hosted many horticulture presentations at the Sunset Park home in the 1960s. The Miller Grove in the Cass Park section of the Cayuga Waterfront Trail is a memorial to her great love for the natural world.
After more than four decades in the home, the Millers sold the residence in 1996 and moved to Kendal at Ithaca.
Patricia Longoria
Deputy Historian
2017
SOURCES
“Horticulturists Eye ‘Covers, Annuals,” Ithaca Journal, April 16, 1964, p. 16;
“Miss Robb Weds William Miller Jr.,” Ithaca Journal, July 7, 1951, p. 4;
“Obituaries: Betty Robb Miller,” Ithaca Journal, January 25, 2005, p. 4;
Tompkins County Deed Book 347, Page 324, Ralph W. Curtis and Alison P. Curtis to William T. Miller Jr. and Betty Miller, February 7, 1952;
“William T. Miller,” Cornell University Faculty Memorial Statement, 1998;
John Yaukey, “Collaborator on atomic bomb marks 60 years at Cornell,” Ithaca Journal, January 1, 1997, p. 13.
“Horticulturists Eye ‘Covers, Annuals,” Ithaca Journal, April 16, 1964, p. 16;
“Miss Robb Weds William Miller Jr.,” Ithaca Journal, July 7, 1951, p. 4;
“Obituaries: Betty Robb Miller,” Ithaca Journal, January 25, 2005, p. 4;
Tompkins County Deed Book 347, Page 324, Ralph W. Curtis and Alison P. Curtis to William T. Miller Jr. and Betty Miller, February 7, 1952;
“William T. Miller,” Cornell University Faculty Memorial Statement, 1998;
John Yaukey, “Collaborator on atomic bomb marks 60 years at Cornell,” Ithaca Journal, January 1, 1997, p. 13.
