Dabls Mbad African Bead Museum isn’t going anywhere.
Earlier this week, reports surfaced that the unique Detroit institution founded by artist and collector Olayami Dabls in 1998 would be closing its doors pending emergency demolition. While a vacated building on the property will see emergency demolition within the next week, it is not one of the public or occupied spaces owned by the organization.
The museum owns nearly an entire city block at the corner of Grand River and West Grand Boulevard in Detroit, currently composed of five buildings, Dabls told the Free Press. One houses the gallery and shop known to the public as the bead museum. Another holds a retail outlet which sells clothing. Another, the middle unit, holds the museum’s massive complete collection as well as office space.
Dabls said the shop and current museum hold just a small sample of the full collection, but the building slated to come down was intended to become a full-scale bead museum until it suffered a partial collapse before the pandemic.
“It’s the one on the corner,” Dabls said, “the one you see when you turn (from Grand River) down Vinewood. 6559 Grand River. The roof has collapsed, and a second on the wall fell. The city said they’re going to demolish it. Normally, they would give me time to make the repairs – because it could be repaired – but there have been some incidents in the city where buildings have collapsed and injured people. They decided on the side of caution and not taking that chance anymore. It’s just bad luck on my part.”
City officials took notice of the issue earlier in the week when Dabls launched a GoFundMe page seeking $399,000 to cover renovation costs for the structure. David Bell, director of the city’s building safety, engineering, and environmental department, issued a statement Friday morning saying that once it caught government attention, it couldn’t be ignored.
“At the time the owner of DABLS posted information on social media about his building next to his museum, there was no demolition order related to it,” read Bell’s statement. “However, since the issue was brought to our attention, we have inspected the building and determined it to be in a state of significant collapse and must be taken down immediately. Based on our inspection, we have issued an emergency demolition for this building.
“It is important for people to understand that this is an entirely separate building from the DABLS museum, which is not affected by this order. The building has deteriorated to the point it is no longer salvageable and poses an immediate threat to public safety. Our primary concern is the health, safety, and welfare of residents and the public who may visit the area.”
Dabls said the cost to rebuild the structure is prohibitive, but a new opportunity could reveal itself soon.
“There’s a building behind that building that they are going to demolish,” said Dabls. “We may be able to acquire that building, and then we’d have space in front of it that would be like a courtyard. That may be the reward that comes out of this.”
The Dabls Bead Museum draws thousands of annual visitors from around the world to see and purchase vintage African trade beads that number as old as 300 to 400 years. For more information, visit mbad.org.
Contact Free Press arts and culture reporter Duante Beddingfield at dbeddingfield@freepress.com.
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