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# The Magic of Spokane’s Hobbit House
- URL: https://www.stonewallnews.net/ryan-and-robert-artists-interview-hobbit-house-by/
- Published: 2026-09-27T13:39:51.000Z
- Updated: 2026-09-27T13:40:13.000Z
- Author: Percy Laird
- Tags: Spokane, Eastern WA, Profiles

Somewhere in Spokane, there’s a Hobbit House.

Tucked inside a residential neighborhood, it’s anything but ordinary. A tiny round door, whimsical landscaping, and layers of handmade details have transformed an otherwise unassuming front yard into something that feels pulled from another world.

For Ryan Oelrich and Robert Thompson, that sense of wonder is part of the point.

### **Origins**

The Hobbit House began after the couple’s 2017 honeymoon in New Zealand, where they visited Hobbiton, the movie set created for *The Lord of the Rings* and *The Hobbit* films. They walked among the tiny houses, took in the elaborate details, and found themselves immersed in a world that felt almost impossibly magical.

When they returned to Spokane, Ryan’s long-time love of *The Hobbit* collided with a backyard project he had been imagining for years. There was a dugout area beside their house. Ryan saw an opportunity.

An old industrial door became the entrance, though turning it into a round door presented its own engineering challenges, particularly when it came to making sure the hinges could support it. Landscaping followed, with Ryan doing much of the work despite describing himself as more of an “indoor cat” than a gardener.

By the end of that first summer, they had their Hobbit hole.

### **Response**

Begun as a personal art project, the Hobbit House took on a life of its own in 2019, when the couple decided to decorate for Halloween. They announced that they would host trick-or-treating and collect books for a local foster-care nonprofit.

They expected a couple of dozen people. Instead, over a thousand people showed up. “There was a line down the street,” Ryan recalled.

The response was exciting, but it also made something clear: the Hobbit House had suddenly become part of the neighborhood. The couple began looking for ways to preserve the magic without overwhelming the people who lived around them.

Rather than one enormous Halloween event, they started spreading visits throughout October. The crowds are smaller now, but the tradition remains.

The Hobbit House is a year-round project, with seasonal decorations layered over a permanent landscape. There’s a dragon, a geocache, and an ever-changing collection of handmade details, as well as a little free library and scavenger hunts. The couple has also used the space as Ryan’s office and, occasionally, as a quiet retreat.

The Hobbit House is no longer entirely Ryan and Robert’s creation. That may be what makes it most interesting. People don’t just visit it. They participate in it.

![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/d5/95/d595da8d-ecfc-467e-9765-406e3e9a8989/content/images/2026/09/a7b6712c-d33a-44d6-8de6-7c8e3a361830-1.jpg)

Ryan and Robert's home this Halloween season. The Hobbit House is on the right. | Courtesy photo

During the pandemic, people began leaving Christmas ornaments at the Hobbit House, though nobody had organized such an exchange. Eventually, it became an annual tradition, with hundreds of ornaments circulating through the décor and landscape.

For years, another local artist has been leaving three-dimensional, painted dragon eyes around the property. Ryan and Robert hide them, visitors hunt for them, and the artist brings new ones periodically. The couple knows the artist through Facebook but has never actually met them in person.

The little free library has similarly become a place for people to leave art and handmade objects.

Some visitors make a deliberate trip. People have traveled from Seattle, and even from Canada, specifically to see the Hobbit House. Others encounter it accidentally, which may be even closer to the experience Ryan and Robert originally imagined.

One woman told them she had gone for a hike on a particularly difficult day, hoping to find a waterfall. She got lost, eventually emerged onto a dead-end street and stumbled across the Hobbit House. She later told them that finding it had changed the experience of what had otherwise been a miserable day.

Another time, two older women wandered through the garden while Ryan and Robert were sitting outside with neighbors and having wine. They saw the door to the Hobbit House standing open, walked in, and joined the group as though they were friends of the people already there. Afterward, Ryan and Robert discovered that the women weren’t friends with their neighbors either. They had simply seen an open door and walked through it.

That kind of unexpected interaction is central to the couple’s larger approach to art. Ryan and Robert have created interactive pieces that ask strangers to communicate with one another through a curtain, draw pictures of people they cannot see, or simply sit together in silence. Their work is less about creating an object for people to observe and more about creating an experience people become part of.

The Hobbit House may be their most elaborate version of that idea.

People sometimes ask why the couple doesn’t publish the address, establish regular hours, or find a way to monetize the project. The answer is that they don’t want to.

“There’s joy beyond making money,” Ryan said. “Not everything needs to be a hustle.”

![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/d5/95/d595da8d-ecfc-467e-9765-406e3e9a8989/content/images/2026/09/Image1.jpg)

Helpful requests at the Hobbit House. | Courtesy photo

### **Something special**

Robert described the Hobbit House as having something of a speakeasy quality. There is something special about hearing about a place from a friend, following a few clues, and eventually finding it for yourself.

For Ryan, the project also offers a kind of escape.

He first read *The Hobbit* as a child during difficult times, and he has returned to the book throughout his life. The story’s sense of adventure and possibility has stayed with him.

That spirit shows up in the way he approaches each new addition. One year, it might be giant mushrooms. Another year, an elaborate Halloween character. This year, he originally imagined creating a giant, terrifying Sauron. Instead, he made Sauron tiny. The final version is a ridiculous little figure with an enormous sword, an imposing helmet, and tiny baby hands.

Ryan said there was something healing about taking a traditionally frightening villain and making him vulnerable and almost silly. After sharing the idea online, he heard from people who connected with the image in ways he hadn’t anticipated. It is a fitting evolution for the Hobbit House.

The couple still creates and curates the space, but the community has begun leaving fingerprints of its own. Perhaps that’s the real magic of the Hobbit House: not that it perfectly recreates a fictional world but that it creates an opportunity for people to briefly enter one together.

Some people will seek it out intentionally, sometimes traveling a considerable distance just to see it. Others will stumble upon it on an ordinary day and wonder how they ended up somewhere so strange and delightful. Either way, the experience begins with curiosity.

What is that? Who made this? What else is hiding around the corner?

Those who want to find the Hobbit House will have to ask around, follow the clues, and keep an eye out for the round door. After all, a little mystery is fitting for a Hobbit House.

![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/d5/95/d595da8d-ecfc-467e-9765-406e3e9a8989/content/images/2026/09/370af1b8-1fca-43f5-9eb3-fbf50de6e61a-1.jpg)

Ryan Oelrich and husband Robert Thompson | Courtesy Photo

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