ANN ARBOR, MI -- Ann Arbor parents and lovers of whimsy can see the city’s iconic fairy doors in a tour designed by a local resident.
Built Story, a storytelling mobile application, hosts self-guided tours in a variety of cities. Residents can design and upload tours of their city for others to use to explore. In addition to the fairy door tour, Ann Arbor tours include coffee shops, ice cream joints and cocktail spots.
Naomi Binnie, a librarian at the University of Michigan, first created the tour in 2019.
“I think I just started to see them around town, and I did think it was very cute, very adorable,” Binnie said. “And I know that as a kid I would have loved them.”
The tour, designed for children preschool and elementary age, takes participants on a nearly 2-mile trek around Ann Arbor’s downtown and Kerrytown area. It features 11 stops at public fairy doors.
Fairy doors first started appearing in Ann Arbor in 2005, thanks to area native Jonathan B. Wright.
Read more: Opening the secrets behind Ann Arbor’s famed fairy doors
“There are definitely far more fairy doors than exist on the tour to make it easier for a walking family, especially if they have kids in tow…” Binnie said.
The tour is part of a Halloween series being released across the country. The series also includes ghost tours in North Carolina and a tour of decorated houses in Colorado.
Built Story, designed by spouses Alexina and Brian Alonso, saw beta testing in 2019 and formally launched in 2020. The app focuses on “storytelling with geography,” Brian Alonso said.
“What we’re trying to accomplish is getting the stories of communities out there and accessible,” Brian Alonso said.
Each tour is $10 and is available for 30 days after purchase.
Binnie, who is also Alexina Alonoso’s sister, said that she hopes to eventually expand the tour or create another featuring fairy doors that are less prominent.
“It really is a really sweet and fun thing around Ann Arbor to do, is spot them,” Binnie said.
Find Binnie’s tour on the Built Story mobile app.
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