#87: Go on a tour of the local fairy doors

My recent 10k walk was centered on fairies, dragons, and other fantastical creatures that can all be found inside Ann Arbor. I couldn’t pass up the opportunity to see the fairy doors of Ann Arbor, so I headed out with my trusty camera and plenty of time. While I didn’t actually catch any fairies at home, I did get to stop by most of them. A record of my visit is below the cut, but beware – it’s not dial-up friendly.

The first stop on our tour were the three inside the Bead Gallery/Adorn Me shops. This one above the landing (it has matching fairy windows!):

This one in the back corner of the shop:

And this one right by the door:

Close by, you can see the one inside the library – appropriately in the Fairytales and Folklore section:

“Please do not touch. These books are out of circulation. Besides there may be someone living in them.”

Heading across town, we come to Jefferson Market and Cakery (yum!):

Back to the downtown area. Coming up Ashley, there are three shops that all have their own doors.
Red Shoes (a really cute, quirky little shop):

Serendipity Salon:

and Hathaway’s Hideaway:

Then to Sweetwaters for some Italian soda and another fairy door/room:

Of all the doors, though, I think I like Crazy Wisdom’s best:

It’s just beautiful!

Peaceable Kingdom’s door looks quite normal from the outside:

But from the inside you see the door is just the beginning. There are windows in the bottom of the front display giving you a glimpse of this fairy’s life. Quite the collector of odd little things:

After the Peaceable Kingdom, I continued down Main Street to The Ark to see the Fairy Ticket Window:

and door:

Sadly, the tickets fell out of the slot for the ticket window, so I couldn’t take my own fairy ticket with me. Next time, though.

Turning around, we come to the Selo/Shevel Gallery on the other side of the street. On one of the Liberty-facing windows, you’ll catch a glimpse of a fairy who needs no door and prefers to travel via window instead (perhaps I missed an actual door?):

That was the last fairy door on the walk, but I know there are a few others out there. Google has one, but I don’t know if they’ll let the public in to see it. I’ll have to ask. Nicola’s Books on the west side of town also has one. I might have to stop by to see it for myself sometime. There are a few more too, in private homes, elementary schools, and who knows where else? Fairies are tricksy creatures, and they don’t always like to be found. Check out Urban Fairies for some inside info on where they were first found and where they might be hiding now.