Ruskin College opened in 1910 as a coeducational industrial and liberal arts college on part of a large tract of land purchased by Dr. George McA. Miller beginning in 1907 to establish a cooperative college and a planned community modeled on the philosophy of British social thinker John Ruskin, who believed in making education available for everyone. Dr. Miller, who had previously established two other Ruskinian colleges in the mid-West, was devoted to combining intellectual endeavors with manual labor. His wife, Adeline Dickman Miller, designed the nearby Swiss chalet style structure, which was constructed in 1912 and was the only one of Ruskin College's original buildings to survive a fire in 1919. By then the cooperative college had declined because of the loss of students during World War I. In 1940, the Miller House was deeded by the family to the Ruskin Woman's Club, and in 1974 it was placed on the National Register of Historic Places. It remains a symbol of the utopian origins of the community of Ruskin.