The Miller Family:

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The Miller Family

• How the women contributed to Frank Millers
  legacy

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What was the role of women in American politics
in the late 1800s?
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How was the womens role at home changing in the
1880s and early 1900s?
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Frank A. Miller Founder of the Riverside Mission
Inn
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Frank Millers formal education was limited and
often, Isabella, Millers wife, was his teacher.
I began my study of reading and grammar last
night. She (Isabella Hardenberg) hears me recite
every other evening. She has helped me be good
by her own noble example.
Frank Miller It is thought that after Isabellas
death, Frank Millers second wife, Marion, would
use this same desk to help in the family
business That desk was in his office when I
came here and I was his secretary. Marion
Miller
Frank Millers desk where he studied as an adult.
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Engraved on the inside of this desk are wrtings
and drawings, including a drawing of a Victorian
women complete with bustle.
Isabella (Hardenberg) Millers school desk Frank
Millers wife
Born in Indiana in 1853, Isabella Hardenberg was
educated at the University of Wisconsin. She
arrived in California in 1875. She was one of
Riversides first teachers and one of the first
boarders at the Miller familys Glenwood Hotel.
It was at this desk that Isabella would
instruct her students. Inside reveals the stains
from the pens and inkwells.
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Frank Augustus Miller and Isabella Demarest
Hardenberg married on June 8, 1880, the same year
Frank purchased the Glenwood Hotel from his
father. They had one child, Allis, born in 1882.
Isabella died on July 21, 1908.
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This gold locket belonged to Frank and Isabella
Millers daughter, Allis. On the cover is the
monogram AHA (Allis Hardenberg Hutchings) and
inside, the photographs of her parents, Frank and
Isabella Miller. Allis Miller, the only child
of Frank and Isabella Miller, was born in the
Glenwood Hotel in 1882. She had an extraordinary
childhood. The Glenwood Hotel was her home and it
was also her playground. It was at a time in
Riverside when the orange industry was rapidly
expanding. Riverside was no longer a small,
dusty town.
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Living at the Glenwood Hotel and later, the
Mission Inn, provided Allis with the opportunity
to meet many famous people. People like
President Teddy Roosevelt, Henry E. Huntington,
John D. Rockefeller, magician Harry Houdini,
Swedish prince Gustavas, Susan B. Anthony
(Anthony was a distant cousin of Allis uncle,
Frank Richardson), and Albert Einstein all were
among the many guests. During the
construction of the Mission Inn, Allis father
planned to have the original family home torn
down, the home in which Allis was born. She
persuaded her father not to destroy the home.
He agreed. The home was remodeled to match the
Mission Revival style of architecture and named
the Old Adobe. Allis Miller loved to
travel. In 1893, she visited the Worlds Fair in
Chicago with her parents. After she married, she
continued to travel and collect items for the
hotel. She had a great love of bells. At one
time, there were close to 800 bells in the
collections of the Mission Inn.
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Wedding photographs from Sept 13, 1909, with the
names of Allis Hardenberg Miller and DeWitt
Vermilye Hutchings underneath. On the back are
the Mission Inn escutcheon and the words, Welcome
to the daughter of the Inn, Allis, and her good
man DeWitt. November 1909.
Allis Hardenberg Miller married DeWitt Vermilye
Hutchings on September 13, 1909 at the Mission
Inn. Mr. Hutchings, a graduate of Princeton
University, met Allis when visiting the hotel the
previous year. Allis and DeWitt were very
involved in the daily operation of the hotel and
took over the management after Allis father
passed away in 1935. It was not an easy task to
follow in the footsteps of a great man. For
almost the next 20 years, they ran the hotel.
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The couple and their three children loved to
visit other countries and took many exciting
trips around the world. Air travel fascinated
them. The newspapers called them the Flying
Hutchings family (Riverside Daily Press
12/11/36). Their son, Frank, even traveled on
the Zeppelin Hindenburg in 1936 on a flight from
Germany to the United States.
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Allis and Dewitt had three children Isabella,
Helen and Frank. Just like for their mother, the
Mission Inn was the childrens home, but they
also spent many hours in Laguna Beach at the home
built by their grandfather, Frank Miller,
overlooking the Pacific Ocean.
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Born in Mankato, Minnesota, Marion Clark came to
Riverside with her family when she was seven
years old. She would become a stenographer and
secretary to Mission Inn owner Frank Miller. Two
years after Millers first wife, Isabella, died,
Frank Miller married Marion Clark. The ceremony
was held in New York City in December of 1910.
Throughout their life together, she referred to
her husband as Mister Miller. (The Press
Monday, May 22, 1967 Section B page one).
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Frank Miller built a home (1918-1921) in Laguna
Beach for Marion, on property he purchased in
1887. Designed by Mission Inn architect, Arthur
Benton, the home contained many of the same
elements and building materials found at the
Mission Inn. Above the entrance to the home,
carved in stone, is the name Mariona. The
couple traveled around the world collecting items
for the hotel. Soon after his death, Marion
wrote, I do want his name and his work to be
carried on. It is not only very important to the
business to keep his spirit active in the hotel,
but he is an example that will help to keep us
all in the middle of the road. . . . Now, I
get to my joy out of helping to carry on his
work. . . (letter to Zona Gale dated August 7,
1935). Mrs. Miller purchased a home near the
Victoria Country Club In Riverside where she
lived until her death in 1972, thirty-seven years
after her husbands passing.
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The Glenwood Hotel, and later, the Mission Inn,
was a family run business. Parents, wives and
husbands, brothers, sisters and in-laws, children
and grandchildren, nieces and nephews worked at
the hotel. They served in a variety of
capacities and even had roles in the annual
Nativity Play performed in the Cloister Music
Room. Frank Miller portrayed Father Serra, a
fitting role for the patriarch of the Mission
Inn.
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The work of family members was not limited to the
Glenwood Hotel or Mission Inn. Miller gained
experience operating other hotels in California,
including in Pomona, Long Beach and Lake Tahoe
while still owning the Glenwood. His sister,
Alice, and her husband, Frank Richardson, managed
the hotel in Pomona, as well as the Tahoe Tavern.
The heat of the summers in Riverside resulted in
the Mission Inn closing during the summer months.
For a short period, Miller even leased the
Glenwood to his sister Alice. She continued to
serve as manager of the hotel for 50 years.
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Millers younger brother, Edward, managed the
Glenwood Stables, and later, the Glenwood Garage.
The hotel maintained a fleet of nine Stern
automobiles. Frank Miller never learned to drive
a car. Ed would drive to Colton to pickup guests
at the train station. When John D. Rockefeller
arrived, Frank Miller accompanied Edward on the
short trip to Colton.
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Daughter Allis managed the Cloister Gift Shop.
Guests could purchase several publications
related to the Mission Inn authored by Mission
Inn curator Francis Borton, Alice, and her
husband, DeWitt Hutchings. Following her
fathers death, Allis took a more active role in
the operation of the hotel along with her
husband, DeWitt Hutchings. DeWitt became the
Managing Director in 1938. In his will, Frank
Miller had requested, that the operation of the
Inn should be carried on by the family so that
the spiritual as well as the material needs of
the guests may be served. (Klotz, page 95
quoting Millers will). In addition, Miller
asked that his grandson, Frank Miller Hutchings,
participate in the management of the hotel for at
least eleven years. After the deaths of Allis
and DeWitt Hutchings and declining revenues,
Frank Millers three grandchildren sold the hotel
in 1956.
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Frank Miller was a enterprising entrepreneur. He
sought many ways to encourage people to visit his
Mission Inn. The sign on the car was just one of
many methods and ideas Miller utilized.
Sometimes he would travel to the
California-Arizona border to greet train
passengers headed for Los Angeles. He presented
oranges to the travelers while encouraging them
to stop in Riverside.
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Frank Miller had a strong affection for the
cultures of Asia, the people and their decorative
arts. His interest may have begun when Wilson
Crewdson, the Curator of Japanese Art at the
British Museum visited Riverside and the
Glenwood. Millers interest in Asia was also
reflected in his choice of clothing. In 1929,
he was honored by the Japanese emperor in a
ceremony at the Mission Inn. Miller received the
Fourth Degree of Merit of Meiji with the Small
Order of the Rising Sun. Miller wore a kimono to
the ceremony while the representatives of the
emperor were in western dress.
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Miller was very successful. People from all over
the world had heard of the Mission Inn. They came
to see it and to stay here. It was not just
celebrities from Hollywood, but also United
States Presidents and politicians, famous
authors, and millionaires.
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From a very early age, Frank Miller was
encouraged to keep a diary. In these small books,
Frank recorded his daily activities, the weather,
the people he came into contact with, and even,
his feelings about people and events. He was not
happy moving to Riverside. On the day after
Frank his mother, brother and sisters arrived in
Riverside (October 22, 1874) he wrote, Riverside
is a place of about 50 familys sic covering
ground ? 6 milesaround has 1 drugstore, 1 Dry
Good Store, 1 meat market, 1 black smithshop.
To be continued.
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One of Millers diaries was a gift from his wife,
Isabella. In it she wrote, That these pages
may be the record of a noble life is the wish of
your friend, Bell Miller would later write, I
will strive that the words on the front page may
be fully filled. At another time, he wrote,
She (Isabella Hardenberg) is a fine lady and
noble girl.
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Frank Millers vision of Californias past
resulted in a hotel unlike any other in
California. It was almost like a movie set. It
represents no one culture or place in the world.
In one area of the hotel, you could be in Madrid,
Spain in another, outside a temple in Kyoto,
Japan. Millers efforts have been likened to the
creation of Disneyland. No wonder visitors were
and even now, confused as to the origin of the
hotel. It was a fantasy.
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Millers visions extended beyond the Mission Inn.
Working with others, he made significant
contributions to the community. The citys
downtown became a homogeneous blend of Spanish
and Mission revival architecture. Energetic
lobbying efforts resulted in bringing Sherman
High School (formally the Sherman Institute), the
Citrus Experiment Station, the interurban street
car system, and March Field to Riverside. This
man, who had little formal education and never
held an elected office or learned to drive a car,
succeeded where many failed.
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Discussion Can a women be a strong force in
American politics and still manage a family and
perhaps a career?