Beer Can House Houston: More than 50,000 cans make this a home

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The Beer Can House, a Houston landmark, sits between newer homes. (Pat Sullivan / Associated Press Photos)

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Garlands made from the tops of beers cans. (Pat Sullivan / Associated Press Photos)

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Beer bottles and different parts of beer cans line a fence in the yard. (Pat Sullivan / Associated Press Photos)

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A visitor leaves out the back door. (Pat Sullivan / Associated Press Photos)

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A wind chime made from strips cut from old beer cans. (Pat Sullivan / Associated Press Photos)

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Garlands made from the tops of beers cans. (Pat Sullivan / Associated Press Photos)

By Jenn Harris

July 29, 2013 10:43 AM PT

Beer Can House in Houston is a house covered in aluminum siding from flattened beer cans. The fence surrounding the house emits a silver glow from the bottoms of cans, and hundreds of can tops hang on strings from the roof edges, creating a metallic curtain around the front of the house.

Most people may think they could build a house out of all the beer cans they finished off in college, but John Milkovisch, a retired upholsterer for the South Pacific Railroad, kind of did.

He started the project in 1968 by covering his front and backyard with metal pieces, concrete, marbles, rocks and redwood. Then he started adding aluminum siding to his house using the aluminum from beer cans. He continued to add to the house for the next 18 years.

PHOTOS: Beer Can House up close

According to the Beer Can House website, run by the Orange Show Center for Visionary Art, Ripley’s Believe It or Not estimated there are more than 50,000 cans on the house. The beer cans were ones that Milkovisch finished himself, but some neighbors and his wife, Mary, also contributed to the house over the years.

All parts of the beer cans, including the tabs, were used. He made curtains, mobiles, fences, windmills, wind chimes and sculptures. There are also different parts of the cans looped through the trees in the backyard.

With all the thousands of beer cans around the house, you’d think Milkovisch had at least one favorite. Instead, he just liked to drink “whatever’s on special.”

Mikovisch passed away in the ‘80s and his wife continued to live in the house until her death in the ‘90s. The Orange Show Center for Visionary Art took over the house about 10 years ago and began to restore and preserve it as a landmark. The house is open for tours. Admission is $2 and a guided tour is $5. Oh, and there’s also a gift shop.

Talk about taking recycling to a different level.

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