Constructed during the 1840s, the Beck-Miller Law Office is one of Camden’s oldest surviving professional buildings. It is located in downtown Camden in the Wilcox County Courthouse Historic District.
This law office was originally built and occupied by Franklin King Beck, a Camden attorney who later became commander of the 23rd Alabama Infantry during the Civil War. Beck was mortally wounded during the Battle of Resaca, Georgia, in October 1864.
After the turn of the twentieth century, the building became the law office of brothers Joseph Neely Miller and Benjamin Meek Miller. Benjamin Miller was one of Alabama’s most distinguished jurists and politicians, serving as a circuit judge, an associate justice of the Alabama Supreme Court, and Governor of Alabama from 1931 to 1935. The law office building in Camden became widely known as the “Miller Law Office” because of his long association with the building.
In 1995, the building was acquired by the Wilcox Historical Society, and with the assistance of a grant from the Alabama Historical Commission, was restored to completion in 1999.
The building was photographed and recorded in the Historic American Buildings Survey (HABS) in 1937. It is listed on the National Register of Historic Places as a contributing property to the Wilcox County Courthouse Historic District.
This building is located in downtown Camden on the corner of Planters Street and Water Street (Google Maps – 31.992095, -87.289185).
Black and white photograph provided courtesy U. S. Library of Congress, photographer: Alex Bush, Date of Photograph: 01/08/1937.
Sources: 1) Wilcox Historical Society; 2) wikipedia.org/Benjamin_M._Miller