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Miller-Davis Company:
Building Contractors
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Cameron Davis |
The Miller-Davis Company, one of Kalamazoo’s
oldest successful businesses, has been building
Kalamazoo for nearly a century. It had its beginnings in
the O. F. Miller Company, founded in 1909 by Orville F.
Miller. In 1923, Cameron L. Davis, a local man,
joined the firm as junior engineer and estimator.
After a two-year stint at a Detroit firm, he returned to
O. F. Miller as chief engineer. In 1936, the firm
was reorganized as Miller-Davis Company, having
previously spun off the Miller Lumber |
| Company.
At that time, Davis became active in the management of
the company, and served as its president for nearly 40
years until his retirement in 1973. He developed it into
an award-winning construction firm, widely known for the
quality of its work. |
In its early decades, Miller-Davis
concentrated its building efforts in the area paper mills, but as
the paper industry began to wane, the company branched off into the
construction of buildings for college campuses to accommodate the
post-war boom in education created by returning servicemen who were
taking advantage of the GI bill. Gradually it has expanded into
other industrial, commercial and institutional work. It rarely
engages in residential work, but did serve as general contractor for
Kalamazoo's Ingersoll Village
project in the 1940's. Although it has
completed projects in 17 states, most of its work is concentrated in
Michigan, Illinois and Indiana. Today it is one of the largest
building contractors in the state, serving its customers from its
headquarters on Portage Street.
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Carver Center, southwest corner of
Lovell and Park Streets. |
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Kalamazoo Public Library Photo,
Miller-Davis
Collection, MD-1788. |
Over the years, its impact on
Kalamazoo has been considerable. Even a short list of
well-known buildings gives some sense of Miller-Davis's contribution
to the city: the old Upjohn Company office building on Henrietta
Street, City Hall, the County Building, the Fifth Third Bank tower
(originally American National Bank), Civic
Auditorium, Carver Center, Stetson Chapel, Loy Norrix High School, South Junior High School, Southwest
Michigan Tuberculosis Sanitarium (later the
Northwest Unit of
Kalamazoo Psychiatric Hospital),
St. Augustine Cathedral,
First Congregational Church,
Zion Lutheran Church, Kalamazoo
Institute of Arts, and
Kalamazoo Public Library. There are dozens more.
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Zion Lutheran Church, 2122 Bronson Blvd. |
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Kalamazoo Public Library Photo,
Miller-Davis Collection MD-1234 |
Construction firms typically take many
photographs to document their work. Miller-Davis is no
exception and has recently donated its large photo archives to the
Kalamazoo Public Library's Clarence L. Miller Family Local History
Room. These are currently being cataloged and scanned, and
soon will be available on the library's web site.
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For further information, we suggest
these sources:
|
| File |
History Room Orange Dot File:
Miller-Davis Company |
| Magazine |
"Miller-Davis Co. constructs
a good reputation," Business Digest, March 1987, pages
8-10. |
| Newspaper |
"Miller-Davis founder
[Cameron Davis] proud of company," Kalamazoo Gazette, 2
July 1997, page C2, column 1. |
| Newspaper |
"Miller-Davis opening new
headquarters," Kalamazoo Gazette, 21 June 1951. |
| Newspaper |
"O. F. Miller services
today," Kalamazoo Gazette, 1 April 1962, page 1, column
3. |
| Web page |
http://www.miller-davis.com |
Written by Catherine Larson, Kalamazoo Public
Library staff, September 2007. Last updated 20 December 2007.
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