See America Through the Homes and Studios of its Greatest Artists
By Chadd Scott on
National parks checklists are so 2020. During and after the pandemic as Americans experiencing extended cabin fever were looking for wide open, safe, outdoor spaces to stretch their legs, they descended upon our national parks in crushing volume.
Crowds, noise, trash, traffic jams. Circling for parking like at a mall the week before Christmas.
National parks were popular tourist attractions before Covid, since, they’ve become overrun with visitors. Loved to death.
Particularly the big western parks like Yellowstone, Glacier, Yosemite, Arches, and Grand Canyon. Guests now jockey for space with thousands of others. The most popular parks have had to institute timed entry policies to manage the avalanche of people.
Let me suggest another way to see America. A way to see America through its greatest artists without the crowds. Let me suggest the National Trust for Historic Preservation’s Historic Artists' Homes and Studios.
The HAHS program is dedicated to preserving and interpreting the places where art was made. Every HAHS site was the home and working studio of an American artist. Each of these places, all open to the public, is now devoted to understanding and explaining how an artist made their art. Along the way to visiting them, guests will see a side of America no less thorough or revealing than hopscotching between national parks.
The program features the homes and studios of famous artists including Andrew Wyeth (Chadds Ford, Pennsylvania), Edward Hopper (Nyack, New York), Georgia O’Keeffe (Abiquiu, New Mexico), Jackson Pollock and Lee Krasner (East Hampton, New York), and C.M. Russell (Great Falls, MT), and also little-known artists like Grace Carpenter Hudson (Ukiah, California).
Historic Artist Homes and Studios Program Expansion
To help celebrate the program’s 25th year, HAHS has announced its largest expansion since founding, 19 new Affiliate sites spread across the country. HAHS created an Affiliate category in 2022 to broaden pathways for entrance into the program for sites that may not follow traditional models of operation, interpretation, or visitation.
These new additions bring the total number of HAHS member sites to 80, across 31 states, further strengthening the program's mission to advocate and support the preservation and interpretation of site-specific artistic heritage for the benefit of the public and future generations.
In your travels, keep these freshly minted Historic Artist Homes and Studios Affiliate sites across the West in mind.
- The Beer Can House, Houston, TX
The Beer Can House is a significant folk art environment created by John Milkovisch (1912–1988), who transformed his ordinary home into an architectural wonder by covering it with thousands of aluminum beer cans, tabs, and tops arranged into shimmering curtains, mobiles, and wind chimes. The site features not only the mesmerizing metallic exterior, but also unique concrete pathways embedded with marbles, rocks, and colorful found objects.
Now preserved by the Orange Show Center for Visionary Art, this one-of-a-kind home showcases the creative potential of everyday materials while offering visitors the chance to explore both the decorated exterior and interior spaces where Milkovisch lived and worked on his unusual artistic vision.
- Grandma Prisbrey’s Bottle Village, Simi Valley, CA
A remarkable folk art environment featuring thirty-five sculptural structures (including 15 bottle houses) built entirely from discarded materials, with walls crafted from tens of thousands of glass bottles collected from local dumps. Created over nearly 30 years by self-taught artist Tressa “Grandma” Prisbrey (1896–1988) starting at age 60, the site showcases incredible architectural ingenuity and artistic vision through its colorful bottle-walled buildings, mosaic pathways decorated with found objects, and whimsical features.
This folk art landmark, one of the earliest and most significant women-made art environments in the United States, offers guided tours where visitors can experience Prisbrey's creative reuse of everyday materials and her humorous, resourceful approach to architecture and environmental art.
- The Jacobson House, Norman, OK
The Native art center served as both residence and artistic sanctuary for Oscar Jacobson (1882–1966), the influential director of the University of Oklahoma School of Art, and the groundbreaking Kiowa Six, indigenous artists who had studio space in this home. The house, built in 1916-17 with distinctive Swedish architectural elements, was designed to blur the boundaries between indoor and outdoor spaces through its generous windows, deep porches, and elaborate gardens.
Now serving as a gallery and cultural center, the Jacobson House continues its legacy of fostering Native American art and culture through exhibitions, workshops, and educational events, while preserving the unique space where Oscar Jacobson helped launch a watershed moment in 20th-century American Indian art.
- Lelooska Foundation & Cultural Center, Ariel, WA
Hox Hox mask carved by Chief Lelooska. This large articulated mask is danced inside the ceremonial house in Ariel, WA. Brian Christopher photograph.
Visitors to the Lelooska Foundation receive a rare opportunity to experience authentic Native American arts, performances, and cultural traditions in a historic setting that has served as both home and creative space for Indigenous artists since the 1960s. The site features two ceremonial houses where it presents living history programs with traditional Northwest Coast masks, songs, and dances passed down through generations, alongside a museum housing over 600 Native American artifacts and artworks.
Further making this place special is its continuous legacy as both a working artist studio and educational center, where visitors can witness traditional Native arts being actively practiced and taught while exploring the original home and workshop of Chief Lelooska (1962–1996), which has been carefully preserved to maintain its historic character.
- Olive Rush Studio & Art Center, Santa Fe, NM
The Art Center preserves the historic home, studio, and garden of pioneering artist Olive Rush (1873–1966), who transformed this 100-year-old adobe house into a vibrant artistic and social hub where she painted each day, hosted fellow artists, and mentored Native American painters. The property combines Rush's original frescoes and painted furniture with her orchard (including remnant 200-year-old apple trees) and historic garden, where she entertained at tea parties and maintained a bountiful selection of fruits, vegetables, and flowers.
This intimate museum, in its inaugural year of operation, offers visitors a rare glimpse into the life of one of Santa Fe's most influential women artists, known for breaking artistic boundaries by combining modernist techniques with Indigenous art influences while fostering a supportive creative community in the Southwest in the early 20th century.
Garden of Eden full site, image credit Rita Sharp, Lucas Publishing. S.P. Dinsmoor’s Cabin Home features a native limestone log cabin, surrounded by interconnected figurative tableaus.
S.P. Dinsmoor (1843–1932) created the sprawling sculpture garden, featuring a three-story limestone "log cabin" that he built as both a home and an artistic statement about Populist politics. The site showcases Dinsmoor's innovative concrete sculpting techniques, including elaborate biblical and political scenes featuring 150+ life-sized figures that tell allegorical stories about corporate greed, labor rights, and social justice through interconnected tableaus rising to three stories high.
This unique art environment also includes Dinsmoor's final resting place–a concrete mausoleum he built himself where visitors can still view his preserved body in a glass-lidded coffin of his own construction.
- Valley of the Moon, Tucson, AZ
Rabbit Hole Entrance to Troglodyte Cavern at Valley of the Moon. G. Vargas Photography for Tucson Historic Preservation Foundation.
A garden landscape created by visionary artist George Phar Legler (1885–1982) as an immersive fantasyland designed to promote kindness and tolerance through magical experiences. The site features twenty-six distinct historic structures built in a unique Storybook Style, using concrete, chicken wire, and recycled materials to create an enchanted landscape specifically scaled for children's perspectives.
True to its founding mission of inclusion, the site continues to serve diverse communities today, offering specialized programming for underserved groups including transgender and gender non-conforming youth, while maintaining its century-old tradition of theatrical adventures that promote kindness and acceptance for all.
