Blaich’s grocery, added to an old house on this site in 1895, was the first commercial building on South University. Forty years later, as Miller’s, it was a popular place to enjoy ice cream, sodas, and sandwiches. The old wooden building was demolished in 1964 to make way for University Towers. Miller’s reopened here in the new building. Centicore, a bookstore identified with the rebellious spirit of the sixties, opened next to it.

Miller’s closed in 1985 — like the Food Mart down the street, a victim of rapidly rising rents that would force out many other local businesses. The Campus Theater was replaced by a mini-mall and the street’s last gas station by a two-story commercial building. In 2006 new zoning encouraging high-density commercial and residential development was adopted to reinvigorate South University. Within months, the city approved a ten story apartment building to replace the historic 1923 Anberay Apartments on East University.