William Starr Miller II (October 26, 1856 – September 14, 1935) was a prominent New York industrialist and real estate operator.

Early life

Miller was born in New York City on October 26, 1856. He was a son of George Norton Miller I (1805–1891) and Sarah Caroline Tucker (

née A birth name is the name of a person given upon birth. The term may be applied to the surname, the given name, or the entire name. Where births are required to be officially registered, the entire name entered onto a birth certificate or birth re ...

Chace) (1832–1872), who were married on October 9, 1855 in Boston, Massachusetts. William was named in honor of his father's brother, William Starr Miller I (1793–1854), who served as a Representative from New York in the

29th United States Congress The 29th United States Congress was a meeting of the legislative branch of the United States federal government, consisting of the United States Senate and the United States House of Representatives. It met in Washington, D.C. from March 4, 1845, ...

and died about before William II was born. His siblings were George Norton Miller Jr. (1857–1935) and Horatio Ray Miller (1861–1905). William Starr Miller II attended

Harvard University Harvard University is a private Ivy League research university in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Founded in 1636 as Harvard College and named for its first benefactor, the Puritan clergyman John Harvard, it is the oldest institution of higher le ...

from 1874 to 1878, graduating with an

A.B. Bachelor of arts (BA or AB; from the Latin ', ', or ') is a bachelor's degree awarded for an undergraduate program in the arts, or, in some cases, other disciplines. A Bachelor of Arts degree course is generally completed in three or four years ...

degree in 1878. He then attended

Columbia Law School Columbia Law School (Columbia Law or CLS) is the law school of Columbia University, a private Ivy League university in New York City. Columbia Law is widely regarded as one of the most prestigious law schools in the world and has always ranked i ...

, where he graduated in 1880 with an

LL.B. Bachelor of Laws ( la, Legum Baccalaureus; LL.B.) is an undergraduate law degree in the United Kingdom and most common law jurisdictions. Bachelor of Laws is also the name of the law degree awarded by universities in the People's Republic of Chi ...

degree.

Career

In 1880, he was admitted to the

New York City Bar The New York City Bar Association (City Bar), founded in 1870, is a voluntary association of lawyers and law students. Since 1896, the organization, formally known as the Association of the Bar of the City of New York, has been headquartered in a ...

. His original business address was 39 Fifth Avenue, Manhattan, New York. Miller was a member of the

Knickerbocker Club The Knickerbocker Club (known informally as The Knick) is a gentlemen's club in New York City that was founded in 1871. It is considered to be the most exclusive club in the United States and one of the most aristocratic gentlemen's clubs in th ...

and the Union Club of New York.

Residence

Miller commissioned his brother-in-law,

Whitney Warren Whitney Warren (January 29, 1864 – January 24, 1943) was an American Beaux-Arts architect who founded, with Charles Delevan Wetmore, Warren and Wetmore in New York City, one of the most prolific and successful architectural practices in the U ...

, a partner in

Warren and Wetmore Warren and Wetmore was an architecture firm in New York City which was a partnership between Whitney Warren (1864–1943) and Charles Delevan Wetmore (June 10, 1866 – May 8, 1941), that had one of the most extensive practices of its time and w ...

, to design them a French Norman-style "cottage" in

Newport, Rhode Island Newport is an American seaside city on Aquidneck Island in Newport County, Rhode Island. It is located in Narragansett Bay, approximately southeast of Providence, Rhode Island, Providence, south of Fall River, Massachusetts, south of Boston, ...

named High Tide, with interiors by noted designer

Ogden Codman Ogden Codman Jr. (January 19, 1863 – January 8, 1951) was an American architect and interior decorator in the Beaux-Arts styles, and co-author with Edith Wharton of ''The Decoration of Houses'' (1897), which became a standard in American inter ...

. They turned to architects

Carrère and Hastings Carrère and Hastings, the firm of John Merven Carrère ( ; November 9, 1858 – March 1, 1911) and Thomas Hastings (architect), Thomas Hastings (March 11, 1860 – October 22, 1929), was one of the outstanding American Beaux-Arts architecture, Be ...

, however, for their New York City residence at 1048

Fifth Avenue Fifth Avenue is a major and prominent thoroughfare in the borough of Manhattan in New York City. It stretches north from Washington Square Park in Greenwich Village to West 143rd Street in Harlem. It is one of the most expensive shopping stre ...

, in

Manhattan Manhattan (), known regionally as the City, is the most densely populated and geographically smallest of the five boroughs of New York City. The borough is also coextensive with New York County, one of the original counties of the U.S. state ...

. This house became the Neue Galerie in 2001.

Personal life

On April 28, 1886, Miller married Edith Caroline Warren (1866–1944). She was a daughter of George Henry Warren (1823–1892) and Mary Caroline Phoenix (1832–1901). Her father was one of the founders of the

New York Metropolitan Opera The Metropolitan Opera (commonly known as the Met) is an American opera company based in New York City, resident at the Metropolitan Opera House at Lincoln Center, currently situated on the Upper West Side of Manhattan. The company is operat ...

and her brother was the architect

. Together, they were the parents of: *

Edith Starr Miller Edith, Lady Queenborough (formerly Edith Starr Miller) (July 16, 1887 – January 16, 1933) was an American-born British socialite, author, conspiracy theorist, and anti-Mormon agitator. Early life Edith was born in Newport, Rhode Island. She wa ...

(1887-1933), an author who married

Almeric Paget, 1st Baron Queenborough Almeric Hugh Paget, 1st Baron Queenborough, GBE (14 March 1861 – 22 September 1949) was a British industrialist and Conservative Party politician. He was a founder of the Military Massage Service and the Cambridgeshire Battalion of The Suffo ...

(1861–1949) in 1921 after the death of his first wife, fellow American

Pauline Payne Whitney Pauline Payne Whitney Paget (March 21, 1874 – November 22, 1916), was an American heiress and a member of the prominent Whitney family. Early life She was born in New York City, New York, to William C. Whitney and Flora (née Payne) Whitney. H ...

. Edith co-wrote ''Occult Theocrasy'' (a famous conspiracy classic dealing with the Bavarian Order of the

Illuminati The Illuminati (; plural of Latin ''illuminatus'', 'enlightened') is a name given to several groups, both real and fictitious. Historically, the name usually refers to the Bavarian Illuminati, an Enlightenment-era secret society founded on ...

and other secret societies) with Paquita de Shishmareff (pen-name: L. Fry) (1882-1970). Miller died on September 14, 1935, at his

mansion A mansion is a large dwelling house. The word itself derives through Old French from the Latin word ''mansio'' "dwelling", an abstract noun derived from the verb ''manere'' "to dwell". The English word '' manse'' originally defined a property l ...

. Miller, his wife, his parents, and several of his other close relatives are all buried in

Green-Wood Cemetery Green-Wood Cemetery is a cemetery in the western portion of Brooklyn, New York City. The cemetery is located between South Slope/ Greenwood Heights, Park Slope, Windsor Terrace, Borough Park, Kensington, and Sunset Park, and lies several bl ...

Brooklyn Brooklyn () is a borough of New York City, coextensive with Kings County, in the U.S. state of New York. Kings County is the most populous county in the State of New York, and the second-most densely populated county in the United States, be ...

.Section 20, Lot 6125.

Descendants

Through his daughter Edith, he was the grandfather of Audrey Elizabeth Paget (1922–1990), an aviator, Enid Louise Paget (b. 1923), and Cicilie Carol Paget (1928–2013).

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Miller, William Starr American businesspeople 1856 births 1935 deaths Burials at Green-Wood Cemetery Harvard University alumni Columbia Law School alumni