Dickinson S. Miller, philosopher, window climber

David Hume once observed that no matter how skeptical philosophers may profess to be, they ultimately "leave by the door not the window" (i.e. they act based on common sense rather than doing crazy stuff).

That wouldn't have been true of 79-year-old Harvard philosopher Dickinson S. Miller who took to routinely leaving his apartment through his window. Though this was due to a dispute with his landlady, not philosophical preference.

His landlady, Anna O'Brien, claimed he failed to pay his rent, routinely used up all the hot water leaving the other tenants with none, and was "very careless" about his room. So she took away his keys, shut off his electricity, and removed his furniture. But she wasn't able to legally evict him because he fought back in court.

Miller insisted that he had been diligently paying the rent until she had refused to take it, preferring him to leave. He complained that he was now forced to sleep on the floor and to come and go through the window. Plus, he had to work on his biography of Justice Oliver Wendell Holmes "holding a pen in one hand and a flashlight in the other."

In April 1947, Miller convinced a court to force O'Brien to return his furniture. But O'Brien had the ultimate victory in June 1948 when she finally secured an eviction order, forcing Miller to leave.

Sounds like a pretty epic tenant/landlord battle, appropriate for Paul's 'unauthorized dwellings' series.

Holyoke Transcript-Telegram - Apr 2, 1947

(left) Barre Daily Times - Apr 4, 1947; (right) Buffalo News - Apr 4, 1947

Richmond Times-Dispatch - Apr 3, 1947

Posted By: Alex - Tue Mar 18, 2025 - Comments (1)
Category: Philosophy, Unauthorized Dwellings, 1940s

Unauthorized Dwellings 35

The Wikipedia entry on Harshaw, AZ, explains:

In 1963, Harshaw ran afoul of the U.S. Forest Service. By this time, the town housed about 70 inhabitants, and consisted mostly of collapsed buildings, abandoned cars, and run down shacks. The only well-maintained structures in town were the Roman Catholic Church, and a small school.[6][16] The borders of the Coronado National Forest, established on July 1, 1953,[5] included the town of Harshaw, and because most of the residents never actually gained titles to their land, which could have been done starting in the 1880s, the government's property included the town.[29] Because no titles existed, and the land was then owned by the federal government, the residents were labeled as squatters. Further, once the National Forest was formed, obtaining titles to the land was no longer an option. Harshaw's rundown landscape proved to be an irritant to the Forest Service who, in 1963, tried to work with the residents to facilitate a plan to relocate the remaining families and clean up the town site.[6][16] The relocation efforts were not successful, however, as a few residents remained in Harshaw at least into the 1970s.[2]

Posted By: Paul - Tue Mar 11, 2025 - Comments (1)
Category: Regionalism, Unauthorized Dwellings, Ruins and Other Abandoned or Shuttered Structures, Nineteenth Century, Twentieth Century

Unauthorized Dwellings 34

Source.

Posted By: Paul - Mon Jul 01, 2024 - Comments (1)
Category: Unauthorized Dwellings, 1940s, United Kingdom

Unauthorized Dwellings 33

Read the full story here.

NOTE: image is generic.

A man in Washington smelled cigarette smoke in his home and traced it to an upstairs loft. There he found a makeshift bed, a running heater, half-eaten food, and drugs. The following day the suspect returned to the house and was taken into custody, police said.

Posted By: Paul - Wed Apr 17, 2024 - Comments (3)
Category: Drugs, Stupid Criminals, Unauthorized Dwellings, Twenty-first Century

Unauthorized Dwellings 32

Posted By: Paul - Sun Feb 11, 2024 - Comments (0)
Category: Unauthorized Dwellings, Nineteenth Century

Unauthorized Dwellings 31

Squatting on an abandoned island with no amenities, even one convenient to Manhattan, seems to offer some drawbacks. (Article is partial, but I figured we got the gist of it.)

Posted By: Paul - Wed Dec 20, 2023 - Comments (0)
Category: Oceans and Maritime Pursuits, Urban Life, Unauthorized Dwellings, 1970s

Unauthorized Dwellings 30

We surveyed this community earlier in this series, but I thought it deserved a followup chronicling its demise.

The whole saga of Maplewood Mudflats is told in an article here.

Source: The Province (Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada) 05 Sep 1972, Tue Page 25

Posted By: Paul - Thu May 04, 2023 - Comments (0)
Category: Oceans and Maritime Pursuits, Unauthorized Dwellings, Bohemians, Beatniks, Hippies and Slackers, 1960s, 1970s, North America

Unauthorized Dwellings 29

Full story here.

Posted By: Paul - Tue Mar 28, 2023 - Comments (0)
Category: Education, Unauthorized Dwellings, Twenty-first Century

Unauthorized Dwellings 28

Posted By: Paul - Tue Feb 21, 2023 - Comments (1)
Category: Police and Other Law Enforcement, Unauthorized Dwellings, 1980s, Europe

Unauthorized Dwellings 27

As you can read at the Wikipedia page, these evictions were for naught, as the planned dam was never built.

Newspaper source: The Morning Call (Allentown, Pennsylvania) 28 Feb 1974, Thu Page 7






Column below is extension of leftmost column above.

Posted By: Paul - Mon Jan 02, 2023 - Comments (0)
Category: Regionalism, Lakes, Ponds, Rivers, Streams, Swamps and Other Bodies of Fresh Water, Unauthorized Dwellings, 1970s