Luci Miller fans out the photographs, postcards, maps, yearbooks, directories and other printed material on a broad table. Each time she gently lifts an item, the president of Miller Imaging and Digital Solutions — formerly Miller Blueprint — relates a fresh story.

When your family has been in business in downtown Austin since 1876 — Miller Blueprint goes back to 1920 — you have plenty of stories to tell.

“When we were on Congress Avenue, they hung the blueprints out of windows over Congress to dry,” Miller says of the company’s first location. “It was a wet process. My grandfather also had Southwestern Aerial Surveys Inc. In World War II, their plane was requisitioned. That was the end of the flying business.”

In the late 19th century, Miller’s great-grandfather R.C. Lambie and a business partner, Francis Fischer, ran a general contracting company that built several of Austin’s most recognizable structures. It was based at 116-120 W. Fifth St., and following family tradition, Luci and her sister, Ida Miller, still own that building, now used as a nightclub.

R.C.’s daughter, Louise Lambie, earned two degrees from the University of Texas and then married John Dodd Miller. Together they started the blueprint business in 1920 and moved it from Congress Avenue to 108 E. 10th St. in 1924.

In the 1930s, the plain masonry structure there was given an art deco face-lift, a style that followed the company in 1969 to its best-remembered location at 501 W. Sixth Street.

During the past few months — amid rebranding and reimagining — the Millers moved the main store to 1000 E. Seventh St., still close to the downtown business hub. A satellite shop is located on Metric Boulevard. Luci’s brother, Bob Miller, runs G4 Spatial Technology, a business spun off from the family’s surveying work.

During the company’s reinvention, the Millers hired a general manager, Stephen Coyle, upgraded their digital technology, expanded equipment sales and added graphic printing capabilities. Plus, they have continued to develop real estate, always a family sideline.

“My father was brilliant and lucky in the real estate market,” Luci says of Robert Miller. “Oil and gas, stocks and bonds, not so much.”

The move away from the West Sixth Street store — with the vertical sign that goes back to the 1930s — startled some observers.

“We were using less than half the space,” Luci Miller, 53, explains. “Machines are smaller. What used to need 10 people and 10 machines now needs one person and 1 1/2 machines. Much of our business is done by email. Being on that prime corner was not as important.”

Traditionalists, upset by Miller’s controversial treatment of a neighboring building, can rest easy knowing that the memorable sign will soon hang over the East Seventh Street location — if permits are approved.

As she sifts through memorabilia, Luci Miller relates stories about area families whose names now adorn streets, parks and prominent buildings.

Her great-grandfather R.C. Lambie helped build what is now the Elizabet Ney Museum, St. Edward’s University’s Main Building and a number of Texas courthouses. Lambie, who traced his ancestors to Scotland, Germany and England, was from Detroit. He was famed for his elaborate woodwork.

“Bob still has his desk and woodworking tools,” says Luci about her brother. Luci’s grandmother, whose full name was Agnes Louise Lambie, was born at 97 Red River St. in 1890, as was Luci’s father, Robert Lambie Miller, in 1922.

“Mammie was an only child,” Luci recalls with a big grin. “She said that she and her cousin were told to walk down to the grocery store to get pickles. When the grocer bent down in the pickle barrel, his toupée flipped off. He came up out of the pickle barrel bald, and they ran screaming.”

The Red River house stood on land that became the Superior Dairy truck parking lot. These days, developers hope to turn the weedy surface parking lot near the Austin Convention Center into a hotel.

“Dad was an only child too,” Luci says. “On the other side of the fence was (future civic leader) Sue Brandt McBee. She only spoke German. They played, stuck their out tongues out at each other. Dad traded that house for a building on West Seventh Street that had Mr. Lambie’s woodwork in it.”

From 1924 to 1969, Miller Blueprint was anchored near the corner of East 10th Street and Congress Avenue. Nearby was the Trailways bus station, one of two downtown, which eventually replaced the two passenger rail stations.

“Trailways was the Starbucks of the day,” Luci says. “Everybody went there to have coffee.”

The founders of Miller Blueprint, Luci’s grandparents John and Louise, graduated from Austin High School in 1908. Both attended UT, and John also trained at Southwestern University’s seminary in Georgetown.

“He hopped a train to Southwestern,” Luci says. “He grew up on Academy Street in what is now part of the Hotel St. Cecilia. He ran away from home to get away from his stepmother. But I never heard bitter words from him. His was at work till he had a heart attack at age 89.”

Another family tradition: Luci’s father, Robert Miller, worked at Miller Blueprint until he was 85.

In 1935, her grandparents built a house on Jarratt Avenue near the Missouri Pacific railroad tracks, now flanked by MoPac Boulevard (Loop 1). Luci’s generation — five kids in total — grew up in a house across the street.

“It was Pemberton before Pemberton was cool,” she says, somewhat tongue-in-cheek. “We lived on the wrong side of the tracks.”

During World War II, Luci’s mother, Anna Buchanan Miller, was first female student body president of UT.

“She wanted to be the first woman at UT Law School, and she was very upset when she was not,” Luci says. “Instead, she tutored English at Southern Methodist University when World War II ended, then worked for Dean Doty in the UT College of Fine Arts.”

In 1955, Anna was the subject of an elaborate Mother’s Day photo spread in an American-Statesman’s lifestyle section called Mainly About Women, long-ago predecessor to Austin360. The headline ran: “Orchid or no, Mother’s Day is hectic.”

Robert and Anna’s eldest child, Lydia Miller, has retired from teaching; Bob Miller is a co-owner of the family business; Cate Miller is a psychiatrist; Ida Miller is an administrative nurse. Luci is the youngest. Of the seven offspring in the next generation, Bob’s son Josh has worked at Miller for almost 20 years, and Luci’s daughter Madi started working there this summer.

They represent the fourth generation engaged in the Austin family’s core enterprise.

Luci started working at Miller Blueprint at age 15. She clearly remembers the grand opening of the West Sixth Street shop.

“As little kids, we hung out at the 10th Street location,” she says. “My brother remembers a manual switchboard. Early memories at the Sixth Street store include circling a table seemingly for hours, manually collating printing for customers.”

Years ago, she took some time off from the family business to gain the work experience that led to her current leadership role.

“It’s exciting to see a business make it across generations,” she says “A lot of pride, tradition and enthusiasm either brought me back or kept me here. In the last 12 months, we’ve made so many exciting changes.”

One of Luci’s low points came from dealing with the controversy over the removal of the facade of the Guaranty Finance Co. building, which sat next to Miller Blueprint’s West Sixth Street location. That facade is now stored at Miller’s Metric location.

“We were very careful documenting the stones,” Luci says. Architect Lee Alexander and the employees of Structura, a general contractor, helped the family with what they considered a preservation project. “We were thinking about selling those properties. So we removed it to keep it safeguarded. Our goal is to put it back up within blocks. Or donate it to a museum?”

That didn’t please preservationists, who, naturally, like things to remain in their historical context.

“Some people screamed,” Luci says. “People take it personally. People can get angry if they walked by it every day. There is a sadness for messing up history.”

Luci’s husband, Jarrel Maurice, works at Rainmaker Document Technologies, which deals primarily in legal documents, meaning there is little overlap between the businesses.

Back to real estate: Like other Old Austin families, the Millers have kept control of a checkerboard of central-city properties, including those two small spots on West Sixth Street.

“Dad believed strongly in leaving things for his kids and grandkids,” Luci says. “Bob and I bought this Seventh Street property for the same reason: So we can control the future.”