The school was named in honor of Kelly Miller, an African American mathematician, sociologist, essayist, newspaper columnist, author, and an important figure in the intellectual life of black America for close to half a century.
At the time, Miller was Howard University Dean of the college of Arts and Sciences, and traveled to Clarksburg to discuss education as a way to help African Americans.
The future of this building is in limbo as the board offices are planning to move to the former Gore Middle School which is a newer recently closed structure.
In 1929 the building was expanded to include a gymnasium, swimming pool, large library, more classrooms manual arts workshop, an auditorium with a seating capacity of 825 and a first-class home economics department.
On African American educational policy, Miller aligned himself with neither the "radicals" — Du Bois and the Niagara Movement — nor the "conservatives" — the followers of Booker T.
[citation needed] Miller sought a middle way, a comprehensive education system that would provide for "symmetrical development" of African American citizens by offering both vocational and intellectual instruction.
The portion of Water Street where the building is located from Washington Ave to the Dead end was renamed EB Saunders Way sometime in the 1990s in honor of the former beloved principal.