March 31st, 2008
Beer Can House
Houston, Texas – Beer Can House
Thanks Lisa for finding this one…
Houston, Texas – Beer Can House
In 1968, John Milkovisch was just another retired employee of Southern Pacific railroad. He lived in an undistinguished house in an undistinguished suburban neighborhood of Houston. Then John got antsy. He began decorating his patio with pieces of brass, marbles, rocks and buttons. Then he tore up the lawn and replaced it with similar glittery debris. The house itself was next. John took beer cans and flattened them into aluminum siding
Beer cans quickly became John’s exclusive medium — a convenient one, since John drank a lot of beer. He worked on the house for the next 18 years, incorporating a six-pack a day into its adornment — roughly 39,000 cans. He linked pull-tabs into long streamers to make curtains that chimed when the wind blew. “This curtain idea is just one of those dreams in the back of my noodle,” he explained at the time.
“John thought beer cured everything,” explained Mary, his wife, after John had died.
John passed away several years ago but his Beer Can House is still intact. Mary is still here, too, and welcomes visitors. The cans are a record of John’s imbibing preferences — Coors cylinders are sculpted into whirligigs, while long rows of Texas Pride and various Lite beers make up the walls. Pull tabs tinkle lightly in the breeze, but the only belches you’ll hear are your own.
Here is view of the beer can house in May, 2007. The beer can siding and fences are intact, but all the can tab curtains appear to have been removed.
