#HTE

Please Buy This Disneyland

In an era where outsider art is both appreciated and bulldozed in the interest of land value, I implore you: please buy Hamtramck Disneyland. This sprawling complex of bizarre yard art was started by Dmytro Szylak in 1992 and added to for more than two decades. It is a one-man creative haven of weird hand-lettering, folk interpretations of Americana, and probably tetanus, and as good a reason as any to move to the Detroit area.

Szylak emigrated from Ukraine after WWII and landed in Detroit, where he worked at General Motors for 32 years. Upon retirement, he began hunting for a new project to occupy his time. How he settled on making his yard into an odd homage to Disneyland isn’t entirely clear, but the resulting sculptural collage is now an internationally recognized destination.

Szylak’s Disneyland is built on top of two adjacent garages, reaches two stories high, and continues into the 30’ back yard. It incorporates erratic wooden structures, wind-powered figures and ornaments, carousel horses, holiday lights, massive photos of Elvis, carved characters, and a lot more. The site functioned as a weirdly inverted theme park: you could enjoy the majority of the spectacle from the alley, but with luck and a donation ($2, $5 or $10 by different accounts) you could see behind the scenes with its proprietor.

Like many conspicuous works of folk art, Hamtramck Disneyland has had its run-ins with disgruntled neighbors and concerned zoning inspectors, but by and large the place is beloved. The guest book has been signed by adoring visitors from around the globe, and Szylak’s chaotic creativity has been celebrated locally with art shows and awards.

Fittingly, this wingnutty Disneyland might be a complicated purchase. Since the death of its creator and creative steward in May of 2015, the property has been in limbo as his will was contested. But this week, just one of the Disneyland houses showed up on Zillow with a mention of the property’s “historic significance” and a $60k asking price.

As recently as June of 2015, the area’s Mayor Karen Majewski publicly supported preservation efforts, going as far as saying, “There is no alternative but preservation.” But at this stage it seems to be well out of the community’s hands and destined for public sale. At risk of being a reverse-NIMBY (Please Keep Cool Crap In Your Back Yard?) for a community I’m not part of, I really hope this weird project finds a buyer interested in preserving it.

Folk art has long been seen as more disposable and temporary than works of formal art, despite its ability to creatively critique and provoke. Outsider art is often built on public land, borrowed real estate, or loaned time, all of which can dry up quickly. But as public sources of inspiration and innovation, oddities are worth consideration. As beloved long-running projects die slow deaths (see also: The 24 Hour Church of Elvis; Kullaberg Nimis), it’s worth taking a good look at the ones we still have. And who knows? Maybe a sculptural Disneyland is worth $60k.

For now you can see it many places online or in person, at 12087 Klinger St., Hamtramck, MI 48212.