STORY BY JOHN W. LUNDIN

PHOTOS courtesy of THE COMMUNITY LIBRARY and JOHN W. LUNDIN

Shortly after he moved to Bellevue, Henry Miller fell in love with a 16-year-old woman, Annie Gallagher, whose mother ran a boarding house in Broadford, a town west of Bellevue near Galena Gulch.

This was the boarding house built by Matt McFall, owner of the International Hotel in Bellevue, in 1881.  Miller ended up marrying Annie and built a Victorian mansion for her in Bellevue that was the town’s showcase.

The house was on the railroad tracks that ran though Bellevue along Second Avenue and, when prominent guests visited, the train made a special stop at the rear of the home, according an article in The Times News in 1968.

Bellevue suffered another serious fire in September of 1912, when the Central Hotel and the entire block in which it was located, burned down. The Central Hotel was located north of the International Hotel on Main Street, between Elm and Cedar Streets.  

The Wood River Times of Sept. 3, 1912, reported: “A Calamitous Fire in Bellevue--Two Men Perish, Only the Trunks Being Unconsumed – Over $12,000 Worth of Property Destroyed – The Loss Total.”

“The Bellevue Fire Department was promptly on the ground and three powerful streams under good pressure were turned on,” the newspaper article reported. “But all that the fire boys could do was to protect the property fronting on the railroad street, as the half-block on Main Street seemed beyond saving.”

Two houses that were saved on railroad street (2nd Ave.) were owned by Mrs. Harris of Los Angeles, formerly Mrs. H. E. Miller who remarried after Henry Miller died. There being no electric lights used in the block, and the risk being bad, the insurance companies refused all risks in that block during the past two years.”

In 1913, the Miller house was moved to its present location south of Bellevue.   The 1912 fire and the insurance problems it exposed may have precipitated the move of the house.  The Bellevue Council approved the request to move the Miller house through Main Street to the Miller ranch south of town. It also allowed the temporarily removal of telephone and electric wires during the move, with the Millers being responsible for all damage caused.

The house was set on blocks and, with the help of a winch and a horse walking in circles around the building, slowly proceeded to the new site.  So smooth was the move, it was said that the cook was able to prepare and serve meals while the house was traveling.

The house’s stone foundation was also moved, with each stone numbered to ensure its correct location on the new site. Henry’s widow Annie lived there the rest of her life, although loss of fortune left her able to heat and inhabit only the basement during the silver depression of the 1990s.

The Miller house was listed on the National Register in 1975.  And, in 2023, a book was published, Moving the Millers' Minnie Moore Mine Mansion: A True Story, written by Dave Eggers and illustrated by Júlia Sardà.

The book, which is for sale at the Wood River Museum of History + Culture in Ketchum, is said to “spin a quirky historical event into a whimsical and tall-ish true tale of American ingenuity.”

EDITOR’S NOTE: John W. Lundin, a lawyer, has written several history books, including “Skiing Sun Valley: A History from Union Pacific to the Holdings” and his newest, “From Cheechakos to Sourdoughs.”