BEER CAN HOUSE in HOUSTON, TEXAS

Robynn over at Robynn's Ravings had a photo of a very 'weird' house (even for Robynn!) in Toronto on her blog last Friday. As always, I read, I laugh and I learn from her posts. She wondered what kind of people would design, build and/or live in such strange places. It was the title of the book, "Weird Homes" by Arthur Black that jogged a memory of a 'weird house' in Houston, Texas. The Duck and I lived in or around Houston from 1966 to 2000. I actually saw this house several times ... and I was cold, stone, sober each time!

Who says drinking and creativity don’t go together? If you drink a six-pack a day, you might just be on the verge of genius. That’s the way it happened for a man named John Milkovisch, who consumed an awful lot of beer—roughly 50,000 cans of the stuff. That’s a lot of aluminum to dispose of. But John, an innovator, thought: "Hey, I’ll just flatten those cans and side the house with them." He also tore up the lawn, covered it with all sorts of sparkly things, and made nifty wind chimes from streamers of pull-tabs. The Beer Can House is now administered by the Orange Show Center for Visionary Art. And what was this visionary’s favorite brew? “Whatever was on special.”


The home was becoming a nationally celebrated folk-art site when the Southern Pacific upholsterer died in 1988 at age 75. Since then, it has suffered years of decline. Perhaps even more weird than the actual house ... a $125,000 grant from the Houston Endowment to the Orange Show Center for Visionary Art will help restore the home.
















The house was open to the public in March of 2008 for the first time since its purchase from the Milkovisch family and a seven-year restoration project totaling $400,000.




Beauty? ... art? ... weird? ... in the eyes of the beholder, it seems ... or drinker.