People can take a 'fairy tour' around town in search of 'urban fairy doors'
By Jenn McKee
The Ann Arbor News
ANN ARBOR, Mich. (AP) - Fairy doors in downtown Ann Arbor - as well as a few other parts of town - had a rather inauspicious start: namely, an eviction.
Yes, the first fairy door appeared in 2005, outside of Sweetwaters Coffee and Tea, and it only stayed there for about a week.
"It was on the exterior of the building," said Sweetwaters' co-owner, Lisa Bee. "I didn't even know about it. But the person who owns the building is really good about keeping it neat and clean, so he was taken aback by this little door just showing up. He asked if we knew who had done this, and then he had a maintenance team remove it."
Bee did talk with her staff about the door, and soon, one person discreetly came forward and spilled the beans: the man behind the fairy door was Ann Arbor native (and Sweetwaters regular) Jonathan B. Wright, who'd welcomed fairies - by way of doors and miniature rooms - into his family's 100-year-old West Side home for more than a decade.
"He'd just wanted it to be something fun you spot when you walk by," said Bee, who'd set up a meeting to talk with Wright. " ... I thought it would be a five-minute thing, but we ended up talking for over an hour."
Bee arranged for the maintenance team to return the door to Wright, and the owners approved the door's presence inside the café, The Ann Arbor News reported.
"I asked, 'Do you need some set-up time?' and he said, 'Nope ... You'll just notice it one day,'" Bee said.
And so she did; plus, in addition to Sweetwaters' fairy door, a miniature fairy café - with a button to turn the light on and off on top - appeared.
How often do people come by Sweetwaters to look at the fairy items?
"Every day," Bee said.
Yes, kids and adults have sought out what Wright dubbed "Urban Fairy" doors around Ann Arbor ever since Sweetwaters established a permanent portal. Doors at Peaceable Kingdom, Selo/Shevel Gallery (now closed), The Ark, Ann Arbor Framing Company, Red Shoes and more appeared the same year, and others at the downtown library and Nicola's Books followed, making it possible for door hunters to take a kind of fairy tour around town.
Sometimes the doors live on a business's exterior, and sometimes they're inside; and certain doors - like the one at Peaceable Kingdom - feature a view of a fairy version of the store behind the door.
But it all started with Wright, who bills himself as Ann Arbor's resident "fairyologist." In 1993, his family began finding fairy doors (and sometimes fairy furnishings and staircases) around the Wrights' home: under the stairs, in the fireplace, in the kitchen.
"When my kids found the first one in our house, we kind of imagined that it might expand a little bit," Wright said. "More showed up in our house. And once they started appearing downtown, it only made sense that they proliferated a bit. How much they proliferated, and how far, was more surprising to me."
Media coverage of Ann Arbor's fairy doors happened in places as far-flung as Great Britain and New Zealand, as well as various news outlets across America. But one part of the Ann Arbor fairy doors experience got phased out: a guest book, in which visitors, often children, left messages and drew pictures for the fairies.
"I initially put them there because people were leaving lots of messages at the doors, and it got a bit cluttery," Wright said. "Plus, it was fun to invite people to record their responses. But then I spent a bit too much time on the guestbooks ... It got to be both expensive and time-consuming, and then it got off-track, with messages like 'Forsythe focks!' or whatever."
Wright - who teaches classes in graphic design technologies at Washtenaw Community College, works part-time at a hardware store, and does freelance assignments as a graphic artist - had often crafted the guest books so the cover visually echoed, or featured an image of, their affiliated door, and he used hand stamps on entries.
And kids' drawings in the fairy door guest books led to the 2007 publication of Wright's book, "Who's Behind the Fairy Doors?" In the book, Wright includes several children's sketches of a fairy they've imagined, and uses each drawing as inspiration for his own version of that fairy, naming it and providing a few character details. The book has sold well, and it's still available for sale (along with a fairy doors of Ann Arbor poster and postcards) at Sweetwaters, among other locales.
"But because of the book, some of the initial spontaneity (of the guest books) was lost," Wright said. "Kids started drawing things in anticipation of being included in the book. I hadn't expected that. So because of that, plus everything else, it seemed time to move on from the guest book. But it was a fun thing. I may reintroduce it again at some point."
In 2007, a goblin door - a less conspicuous, taller, narrower portal - also appeared downtown.
"The urban fairies seem to be imitating human construction in terms of architecture, but the goblins tend to be a little bit darker," Wright said. "They may be jealous of the fairies and the attention they've gotten, so the goblins have kind of imitated the fairies. But goblins, being little grosser than fairies, will pick a more unseemly spot, where there's gum wrappers, cigarette butts, pigeon poo - stuff like that ... And the properties of the door suggest that goblins may be leaner and taller than fairies."
As a fairyologist, Wright investigates and documents the fairy doors that appear around town, but he "came to the decision a long time ago, business-wise, not to sell fairy doors. I just like the magic of finding them. There's a local Irish fairy door company that makes and sells fairy doors, allowing people to participate in the fun ... I liken it to birdhouses, which are not built by birds, but are built to attract birds. It's just taking a different route to the whole phenomenon."
In addition to the Ann Arbor doors already mentioned, Wright's "Urban Fairy Doors" include doors at the Michigan Theater, Google (though the logo on the door reads "Giggle") and C.S. Mott Children's Hospital.
Other "unaffiliated" fairy doors have sprung up in the wake of Wright's, however, in downtown spots like Himalayan Bazaar, Lily Grace Cosmetics, Crazy Wisdom Bookstore and Tea Room, The Bead Gallery, Edward Jones (on Ashley) and more.
On occasion, local fairy doors fall victim to vandalism - one at Jefferson Market and Cakery eventually was removed, though a non-"Urban Fairy" door now lives inside the store - but Wright noted that by and large, the response to them over the years has been very positive.
Even human homes require basic upkeep, though, and fairy doors are no different. The portal at the Ark, for instance, recently had a panel knocked out.
"I'm sure the fairies are working hard and will fix it as they get the time for making repairs," Wright said. "The upkeep on the doors - it's enormous ... There's a lot involved. People don't realize how much."
Wright has been helping in the effort, both in his own home and downtown, for more than two decades now. His oldest daughter, 22, has just graduated from college, and the other is 19.
How do they feel about Wright's place in local fairy lore?
"It's been part of their lives all along," Wright said. "At times, they're embarrassed by it, and other times, it's mystifying to them. But sometimes it's a small source of pride. This whole thing was something that started in our house."
Published: Tue, Jun 02, 2015
