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Beer Can House

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1974, John Milkovisch. 222 Malone Ave.
  • (Photograph by Gerald Moorhead )

John Milkovisch was an upholsterer for the Southern Pacific Railroad who spent his retirement years decorating his modest wooden bungalow in the West End neighborhood with a carapace and cascades of deconstructed empty beer cans before moving on to his fence, rear garage, and yard. Along with the Orange Show ( HN7), the Beer Can House became one of the folk art sites of Houston in the 1980s. In 2002, Mrs. Milkovisch and her children conveyed the property to the Orange Show Center for Visionary Art to ensure its preservation. West End was historically a working-class neighborhood north of Buffalo Bayou. Its nucleus, the A. Brunner Addition, was platted in 1888 and surrounded by subsequent small subdivisions into the early twentieth century.

Writing Credits

Author: 
Gerald Moorhead et al.
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Data

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Citation

Gerald Moorhead et al., "Beer Can House", [Houston, Texas], SAH Archipedia, eds. Gabrielle Esperdy and Karen Kingsley, Charlottesville: UVaP, 2012—, http://sah-archipedia.org/buildings/TX-01-HN116.

Print Source

Cover: Buildings of Texas

Buildings of Texas: Central, South, and Gulf Coast, Gerald Moorhead and contributors. Charlottesville: University of Virginia Press, 2013, 368-368.

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