Grace Hudson Museum


The Grace Hudson Museum in Ukiah, California is adjacent to the Sun House where artist Grace Hudson and her husband resided until their deaths. The house and museum are owned and operated by the city of Ukiah.

History

Returning to California, Grace and John Hudson lived the rest of their days leading a modest bohemian lifestyle of collecting, traveling, field work, reading, entertaining, photography and painting based in The Sun House in Ukiah, a Craftsman-style California bungalow they designed and had built of redwood in 1911. The Hopi sun symbol was adopted by the Hudsons as their family symbol; the Sun House displays the emblem prominently over the door. John Hudson died there in 1936.
With no children of her own, Grace Hudson left The Sun House and its land to her nephew, Mark Carpenter. Carpenter preserved the house and its 30,000 collected objects for posterity, giving it to the City of Ukiah which operates the house and the adjoining Grace Hudson Museum. Today, the Sun House is California Historical Landmark #926, and is listed in the National Register of Historic Places. The Sun House and Museum are within the Hudson-Carpenter city park. The museum's website says of Grace Hudson that "...her work enjoys renewed interest and recognition for its fine and sympathetic portrayals of native peoples."