Troy Hill Art Houses

Hidden in plain sight in Pittsburgh’s quirky Troy Hill neighborhood, you’ll find secret passages, a sleeping (taxidermied) bear, and a full-sized lighthouse. Behind the ordinary façade of the four Troy Hill Art Houses, you’ll discover and explore other worlds.

The Darkhouse Lighthouse, located at 1913 Tours Street and created by Lenka Clayton and Phillip Andrew Lewis, manages to fit an entire working lighthouse inside, while Kunzhaus, the brainchild of Polish artist Robert Kuśmirowski, calls on the neighborhood vibe, former inhabitants, and photography for inspiration (including the graveyard he installed out back).

Mr. Christopher’s House, the work of conceptual artist Mark Dion, explores the ways in which we collect and display items—and what it says about us. Several period rooms conjure past moments in history, including one space fully decorated in 1960s Christmas fashion, and an art gallery from the 1990s, which features paper mail piled up on the desk. 

Each artist was commissioned by founder and collector Evan Mirapaul and all four houses are located within a few hundred feet of each other, making it possible to explore them all in a day.