Carroll Sterling Masterson and Harris Masterson III spent more than 40 years collecting European furniture, paintings, porcelain and miniatures made between the 1600s and the mid-1800s, and they lived with all of it. John Staub, the same architect who built Bayou Bend, designed their house in 1952. The family used it until 1997, when it went to the Museum of Fine Arts, Houston; it opened to the public in 1999. Unlike the formal period rooms at Bayou Bend, Rienzi still feels lived in, down to the Mexican Room the Mastersons added in the 1970s. Landscape architect Ralph Ellis Gunn designed the 4.4 acres of gardens in the 1950s, working formal beds into steep ravines that drop to Buffalo Bayou. Through January 10, 2027, the exhibition Midcentury Menu: Dining in the Atomic Age uses Rienzi's cookbook collection to look at Jell-O salads, new appliances and postwar entertaining.
What to expect
- Bags go in lockers on arrival; small purses and medical gear are the exception.
- Parking is free on site.
- Non-flash photos are fine; bridal, engagement and family photo shoots are not.
What to do
- Tour the house with a docent or the audio guide and find the Mexican Room the Mastersons added in the 1970s
- See Midcentury Menu: Dining in the Atomic Age (through January 10, 2027)
- Walk Ralph Ellis Gunn's gardens down toward the Buffalo Bayou ravines
- 1952, John StaubHouse designed
- 1999Opened as museum
- 4.4 acresGrounds
- Free dailyGardens