The Couse-Sharp Historic Site invites you to join us for our final Open House of 2025, from 1-3 p.m. Saturday, October 4.

At the October open house each year, we highlight the Virginia Walker Couse Heritage Garden. Volunteers collect seeds and cuttings during the year and share them with community members and visitors. The seed and cuttings giveaway continues a tradition in remembrance of Virginia Couse's original generosity, which helped establish many Taos gardens. If you would like seeds and cuttings, come early—we "sell out" quickly! (See below for more information on the garden.)

Tour the historic home and studios of E.I. Couse and J.H. Sharp, two of the founders of the Taos Society of Artists (TSA). Docents will be present in every room providing in-depth knowledge of the E. I. Couse home and studio, the 1830s Luna Family Chapel, the Kibbey Couse laboratory and machine shop, the Couse Mobile Machine Shop, and the 1915 J. H. Sharp Studio.

We will also be having a Book Sale featuring surplus donated works, mostly nonfiction in the art, history, and culture genres, on the back portal of The Lunder Research Center. Come on by after touring the historic site.

Exhibitions currently on view are Timeless Turns: The Legacy of Tío Vivo in the Luna Chapel, Sun Brothers: Dean, Elliott, Hagege in the Land of Enchantment in the Dean Porter Gallery of The Lunder Research Center, and J. H. Sharp: The Life and Work of an American Legend in the 1915 Sharp Studio.

In the latter, see three large-format works by Sharp that are on long-term loan from Texas A&M University's King Ranch. The the two florals and Taos landscape were hidden away for decades; come welcome them home!

Open to the public, free admission; donations encouraged. Paid parking available a half block east in the municipal lot on Kit Carson Road; those with disabled parking permits can park in the lot at 146 Kit Carson. Please note: Because of the site’s nature as a place of historic preservation, buildings and grounds are not ADA accessible, though The Lunder Research Center is.

VIRGINIA COUSE’S HISTORIC MOTHER GARDEN
Immediately upon their move to their new home on Kit Carson Road in 1909, artist E. I. Couse’s wife, Virginia, began developing her famous garden. She designed its architecture of terraces, stone walkways, and a seat overlooking the valley, as well as the colorful palette of flowers that filled its garden beds. She shared the flowers and seeds from her garden generously.
Visitors often left with a bouquet; locals were supplied with flowers for christenings and weddings; newcomers to town were given seeds and plants to start their own gardens. At its final open house of the season in October, The Couse Foundation carries on this tradition with a giveaway of plants including phlox, daylilies, and iris, and the seeds of oriental poppies, cosmos, and hollyhocks.