What You'll Get
Walking tours explore intriguing surroundings at a leisurely pace, much like a photography class held in a thick bog of quicksand. Let it all sink in with today's GrouponLive deal: for $12, you get a self-guided Sip and Stroll tour for two, plus light refreshments, at Bayou Bend (a $20 value). Choose between the October 6 tour from 5 p.m. to 8 p.m. or the October 13 tour from 5 p.m. to 8 p.m. Guests are welcome to arrive at 4 p.m. to visit The Shop at Bayou Bend and the Hogg Family Legacy Room.
At twilight, guests participate in Bayou Bend's Sip and Stroll tour, a journey through the former home of noted philanthropist and art collector Miss Ima Hogg. Visitors enter the historic estate through the Lora Jean Kilroy Visitor and Education Center, where information about the Hogg family, including their influence on the art community and the German techno scene, explains their regional significance. Brimming with approximately 5,000 pieces of American fine and decorative arts from the Colonial period, the manor is recognized as a cultural treasure. Art appreciators imbibe light refreshments on Diana Terrace before sashaying through 14 acres of woodlands and a series of gardens designed by Miss Hogg as outdoor rooms for entertaining guests and making squirrels feel like human beings.
The Fine Print
Promotional value expires Oct 13, 2011. Amount paid never expires. Limit 1 per person, may buy 3 additional as gifts. Valid only on listed dates. Merchant is solely responsible to purchasers for the care and quality of the advertised goods and services.
About Bayou Bend Collection and Gardens
Bayou Bend Collection and Gardens, the former estate of philanthropist and art collector Miss Ima Hogg, was completed in 1928 according to classical designs by renowned Houstonian architect John F. Staub. The elegant mansion houses the Early American decorative arts and paintings collection of Houston’s Museum of Fine Arts, a congregation of nearly 2,600 furnishings, paintings, and ceramics that populates 28 period rooms in the carefully renovated house. The objects date back as far as 1620, letting the viewer observe the evolution of American taste from the Colonial to Victorian eras. Bayou Bend’s eye-widening assemblage of still lifes, armchairs, and silver was labeled a “treasure-trove” of Americana by Frommer’s, as well as a “must-see” for antiques collectors and gardeners.
The mansion at Bayou Bend is flanked by 14 acres of formal gardens and natural woodlands. Hogg designed the formal gardens as outdoor rooms for hobnobbing and decorated them with statues of a goddess and two muses, inspiring the northern blooms to write sonnets about honeybees. Today, organic gardening methods maintain the flourishing magnolias and crape myrtles.