The Couse-Sharp Historic Site invites you to join us for our final Open House of 2025, 1-2:30 p.m. Saturday, October 10. 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.)

We are planning an artist demonstration and talk noon to 1:00 p.m. Stay tuned for more information!

Then 1-2:30 p.m., you can tour the historic homes and studios of E. I. Couse and J. H. Sharp, two of the founders of the Taos Society of Artists, and enjoy a stroll through Virginia Couse’s vintage garden. Docents will be present in every room providing in-depth knowledge of the E. I. Couse home and studio, the Kibbey Couse laboratory and machine shop, the Couse Mobile Machine Shop, the exhibition J. H. Sharp: The Life and Work of an American Legend in the 1915 Sharp Studio, and the exhibition Weaving the New World: Hispanic Textiles and Their Influence on the Northern Frontier in the 1830s Luna Family Chapel, which Sharp used as his first Taos studio.

From 1-5 p.m. you can view Image Makers for America: In Pursuit of a National Identity, located in The Lunder Research Center next to the historic site.

Open to the public, free admission; donations encouraged. Paid parking available a half block east in the municipal lot on Kit Carson Road; free parking along Kit Carson Road. Those with disabled parking permits can park in our 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 Site carries on this tradition with a giveaway of plants and seeds of many varieties.