A bequest from Samuel Miller funded the founding of Miller School in 1878. Miller, a Lynchburg businessman born in poverty in Albemarle County, envisioned a regional school for children who could not afford an education. The school was a pioneer in combining the value of hands on labor with a liberal arts education. It was coeducational from 1884 until 1928, then all male, and became coeducational again in 1992. Built on property once owned by Miller, the principal building, Old Main, was designed by Albert Lybrock and D. Wiley Anderson in the High Victorian Gothic style. Miller School was listed on the Virginia Landmarks Register in 1973 and the National Register of Historic Places in 1974.