Entry No. 17 — the Houston file — filed under: public art
Move One Place On (Alice in Wonderland sculpture)
Bronze and life-sized down to the empty chairs, the Mad Hatter, March Hare, Dormouse, and Cheshire Cat host a permanent tea party around a ten-foot table — sculptor Bridgette Mongeon hid 150 small bronze objects in the piece, one for each year since Lewis Carroll published the book.
The story
Tucked into Evelyn’s Park off Bellaire Boulevard sits a ten-foot bronze table permanently set for a surreal tea party. Sculptor Bridgette Mongeon didn't just cast the Mad Hatter, the March Hare, the Dormouse, and the Cheshire Cat—she built the whole scene to life size, anchoring Carroll's fever-dream characters right into the Houston soil.
The real reason to visit isn't just the photo-op; it's the hidden game etched into the metal. Mongeon embedded 150 tiny bronze objects into the sculpture's surfaces—one micro-detail for every single year between the 1865 publication of Lewis Carroll's book and the piece's creation. You're left hunting for miniature creatures, tiny tea accessories, and secret motifs tucked into the folds of bronze tablecloths, chair legs, and clothing lapels.
Crucially, the scene was designed without velvet ropes. Mongeon deliberately left empty bronze chairs open at the ten-foot table. You aren't meant to stand back and admire it—you're meant to sit down, join the party, and become part of the bronze installation yourself.
What it's like
Head into the five-acre grounds of Evelyn's Park and look for the installation. On weekend afternoons, expect kids scrambling over the ten-foot table and families queued up for photos. For the best experience, show up on a quiet weekday morning with a travel mug (or a discreet flask), slide into one of the open bronze chairs, and spend twenty minutes scanning the cold metal to hunt down as many of the 150 hidden objects as you can spot.
The move: Bring your own tea (or a flask) and actually sit down at the open seats among the bronze guests, then spend twenty minutes hunting the sculpture together for as many of the 150 hidden objects as you can spot.
- 📍 Bellaire, Houston
- 💸 Free
- ⚡ Up for anything
- 🌗 Outdoors
Where: 4400 Bellaire Blvd, Bellaire, TX 77401 (Evelyn's Park)
Hours: Added 2026-07-19 — confirm current hours before you go.
Pair it with
- Hidden Bar (at Norigami) — Follow up a surreal bronze tea party with an equally hidden cocktail behind an unmarked wooden door in nearby West University.
- Texas Sound Bath at Levy Park — Swap a static bronze tea party for open-air crystal bowl vibrations under the evening sky just down the road at Levy Park.
- William Marsh Rice's Grave (Founder's Memorial Statue) — Keep the outdoor bronze sculpture theme going at Rice University, where the founder's actual ashes rest inside his seated monument.
- Eclectic Menagerie Park — Trade Wonderland's whimsical bronze figures for a field full of giant scrap-steel animals guarding a pipe supply yard.
Good to know
Where inside the park is the sculpture located?
It's situated inside Evelyn's Park, a five-acre public park located at 4400 Bellaire Blvd in Bellaire, Texas.
Can you actually sit in the chairs at the sculpture?
Yes. The piece was intentionally sculpted with empty bronze chairs left open around the ten-foot table so visitors can sit down and join the figures.
Why are there 150 hidden objects in the bronze?
Sculptor Bridgette Mongeon hid 150 small bronze objects throughout the piece to represent the 150 years between the book's original 1865 publication and the sculpture's commissioning.
Is there a fee to see or interact with the sculpture?
No, access to Evelyn's Park and the 'Move One Place On' interactive sculpture is completely free.
Plan a visit & invite your people →
Further reading: Atlas Obscura · houstoniamag.com · evelynspark.org · Official site
last checked: 2026-07-19