The Beer Can House is now open for tours Saturdays and Sundays with reservation.
Two of Houston’s strangest monolithic creations are back open to the public. Curious visitors can now get their tickets to The Orange Show Monument and Beer Can House in Houston! [Featured image: @xrays_in_use]
If you aren’t familiar with either of these mythic monuments, perhaps you have heard of the Houston Art Car Parade. The organization behind the Art Car Parade and Museum, The Orange Show Center For Visionary Art, are the very same that encompass The Beer Can House and (you guessed it) The Orange Show. The center also manages Smither Park – the eclectic creative urban space adjacent to The Orange Show.
Featured on Ripley’s Believe It Or Not – remember that show? – the Beer Can House puts frat houses and your uncle’s shed of empties to shame with over 50,000 cans constructing this beer can casa. According to the organization’s website, the project began back in 1968 when retired railroad upholsterer, John Milkovisch began experimenting with mixing pieces of metal, marble, and rocks into concrete and redwood. Once he filled his backyard with these quirky little landscape features, Milkovisch went to work on his house, adorning it with aluminum beer can siding over the course of 18 years.
The beer can siding was not only an impeccable work of architectural ingenuity, but also serves a functional purpose of lowering the live-in family’s energy bills.
Through May, The Beer Can House is open on Saturdays and Sundays from 1 – 5 pm; June through August it is open Wednesdays through Sundays from noon to 5 pm. Reservations are required beforehand, with tickets priced at 5$ for adults, and free for children aged 12 and under.