Gene Dillard House

In the neighborhood of Northgate Park, tucked away in Durham, sits the transformed, mosaiced home of Gene Dillard. Gene was a repairman by trade his whole life, to varying degrees. He moved from San Diego, CA to North Carolina in the 1980s and began transforming his home in the early 2000s. Gene started with his front yard before moving into his backyard and throughout his home. 

In the front yard, he began with twisted rebar sculptures like the serpentine sea monster that holds his mailbox, a surfer catching a wave down the front lawn, and a multicolored mermaid watching from the right. In 2015, once he became bored of the routine of sculpture, Gene moved to adorning his home and garage with mosaics. 

The front and driveway side walls are covered in fragments of mirrors, both with organic and winding vine patterns that would soon leap from the walls into three-dimensional works as Gene progressed through his projects. 

Around the back of the home, Gene has covered the exterior wall in mosaic mirror stars that set the scene perfectly for the Spaceship sitting in his backyard. Built from 2-in square metals tubes that were welded together and wrapped with rebar, this massive structure is covered in green, blue, and amber bottles which filter colored light inside the Ship during certain hours of the day. 

In recent years, Gene has shifted from using primarily mirrors to glass pebble stones and pottery donated by friends and visitors. Gene has described his local pottery community as very generous, noting how he has been gifted pottery from India and China, but also from local artists looking to give their broken or old piece a second life. 

This pottery is highlighted in Gene’s fence that wraps around his back yard, which he completed over the course of three years during the COVID-19 quarantine. Many of the pottery pieces are placed with the artist's name on the outside – Gene’s homage to the artisans whose signatures are often overlooked. The fence has seven faces along it – a Cyclops (who Gene says represents him because he is blind in one eye), King, Queen, Knight, Joker, and more – all constructed from rebar and cement and adorned with pottery shards, glass bottles, and notably, an unopened Jack Daniels Tennessee Whiskey. You can also see the continuation of the vine motif as three-dimensional tendrils of cement and glass wind around the figures and fence. Gene has left the back of the fence undecorated so visitors can get a behind-the-scenes look of his working process. 

Gene has also started to transform the inside of his home. Each of the main windows has its own mosaiced valance and the entryways of each room have been designed with a matching daisy pattern mosaic. Gene also redesigned the entry above his front door – creating a double-height opening that he mosaiced to welcome his guests. 

Over the winter of 2024, the mosaic face that covered the chimney fell off and Gene has plans to create a new piece to replace it. Gene is also currently building a wizard sculpture that will be holding a lamp to light up his yard while he continues his work.

Sources:

- https://www.pbs.org/video/the-mosaic-house-in-durham-3ikhsz/

- https://www.strangecarolinas.com/2017/02/gene-dillards-fantasyland.html

- Interview with Gene Dillard, 2025

concrete, rebar, mirrors, pottery, glass stone pebbles

2706 Elgin St
Durham, North Carolina, 27704 us
Latitude/Longitude: 36.0257414 / -78.8954942

View Larger Map in New Window