Bayou Bend, the MFAH House Museum for American Decorative Arts and Paintings, Celebrates 60th Anniversary in March
Azalea Trail and new exhibitions mark Diamond Anniversary of Ima Hogg’s former home, which opened to the public on March 5, 1966
Bayou Bend Collection and Gardens, the Museum of Fine Arts, Houston’s house museum for American decorative arts, will celebrate its Diamond Anniversary this March. Since opening to the public in 1966, Bayou Bend has become one of the most important public collections of pre-1876 American decorative arts in the United States.
The anniversary will kick off with the 88thRiver Oaks Garden Club Azalea Trail the weekend of March 6-8. Ima Hogg is credited with introducing azaleas to Houston and Bayou Bend has been part of the Trail since its beginning. A special exhibition, George Washington: America’s Enduring Icon, part of the museum’s celebration of the 250th birthday of the United States, opened on February 11, 2026. It explores the use of our first president’s name and likeness in decorative arts and popular culture from the 18th century to the 20th century, including Miss Hogg’s own invocation of Washington in a 1940 radio speech arguing against Roosevelt’s election to a third term. The historic dining room has also been reset to reflect a breakfast shared between Ima and her brothers Will and Mike Hogg during the brief period when they were in residence together. Both installations will be on view until August 23, 2026.
Daniel Ackermann, director of Bayou Bend Collection and Gardens said, “it’s a happy coincidence that we get to celebrate Bayou Bend’s 60th anniversary the same year we celebrate the nation’s 250th! Miss Hogg believed deeply in the importance of building bridges between Texas and the larger American, something we do daily with our collection, gardens, educational programs, and special events.”
Situated on more than 14 acres of gardens and woodlands in the historic River Oaks neighborhood of Houston, Bayou Bend was the home of collector and philanthropist Ima Hogg. A wide-ranging collector, she began acquiring American art and antiques in the early 1920s with the idea that her collection would eventually become part of the Museum of Fine Arts Houston, of which she was a founder.
Designed by prominent Houston architect John F. Staub, the home was completed in 1928. Inspired in part by 18th century Maryland and Virginia houses, Staub and Hogg incorporated pink stucco and cast-iron details inspired by New Orleans and the Gulf Coast, to create a style the architect dubbed “Latin Colonial.” In the mid-1950s Hogg decided to give her house and garden to the Museum of Fine Arts Houston, along with her collection. Bayou Bend officially opened to the public as a museum on March 5, 1966, with curator David B. Warren as its first director.
Today, Bayou Bend presents its collection in a series of room settings that display fine and decorative arts from 1620 to 1876, including furniture, painting, sculptures, prints, ceramics, glass, metals, and textiles. Bayou Bends 14-acres of gardens are nestled in the bend of Buffalo Bayou. Seven formal gardens with collections of rare azaleas and camelias contrast with the natural areas along Buffalo Bayou.
The house welcomed nearly 44,000 visitors in 2025, to tour the gardens and the home and participate in a range of public programs, from year-round scholarly lectures to an immersive Christmas Village.
