Mary Milkovisch, widow of John "I'm gonna drink all these beers and cover my house with the cans" Milkovisch, joined her husband when she passed away in a nursing home in March. Mary had soldiered on as the tenant of Houston's infamous Beer Can House for over a decade since John's death. John achieved the unique look of his home over 18 years of a six-pack a day regimen, or roughly 39,000 cans.

Beer Can House fans everywhere breathed a belch of relief when Houston's Orange Show Foundation stepped in and bought the place after Mary went into a nursing home last Fall.

According to an Orange Show spokesperson: "We are currently in the assessment stages of our conservation effort. The plans are to preserve the house for future generations and convert the interior into a public exhibition space to tell John Milkovisch's and the house's story. We also hope to have space for traveling folk art exhibitions. We hope that the opening to the public will be mid-(?)-2003."

"Until that transformation can take place, the house is not open to the public. Folks can always drive by and see plenty from the street, just as always. A dear friend of The Orange Show and an accomplished metal artist is living in the house now as caretaker." [05/19/2002]

February 10, 2012