Detroit’s Legendary African Bead Museum Ordered To Be Demolished

The building has come under scrutiny for years

An emergency demolition of a collapsed portion of Dabls MBAD African Bead Museum in Detroit has been ordered by the city – just days after the owner started crowdfunding for repairs.

Detroit’s Buildings, Safety Engineering, and Environmental Department director David Bell released a statement confirming the emergency order was handed down on June 27 due to the inspection. The property was scheduled to be the new home of a collection of African beads from hundreds of years ago.

“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,” the statement read.

“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 order for this building.”

Towards the end of June 2024, owner Olayami Dabls launched a $400,000 crowdfunding campaign to repair the property after receiving a $500 blight ticket – given if property owners in the city fail to maintain their properties according to the city’s property maintenance code. Dabls feared the violation would result in demolition.

However, he didn’t believe an emergency demolition would take place after a conversion with a city inspector leaned towards a path to move forward.

“I’m disappointed that they decided to not allow me to make the building safe,” he said.

The vibrant building with bold colors stands at the corner next door to the museum with intentions of being what Dabls described as “rival anything we have” regarding the city’s cultural institutions. Now, he says the demolition “will be devastating” for his plans.

“That was going to be the building where all of the museum’s collection was going to be,” he says.

“And it’s already surrounded by murals. Nothing has been said about preserving the murals on the walls.”

According to Bridge Detroit, the building is close to 100 years old and was built in the early 1920s. Dabls plan was to host educational workshops on top of housing the new gallery. But after years of issues with the building, he hopes to rebuild.

“I could’ve done so much with this space,” Dabls said.

“But people said it’ll cost less to rebuild than to repair, so all is not totally lost.”

The owner’s love for African beads started after meeting a trader at the Michigan State Fair in 1985. After he became a collector, he purchased two buildings in 1996 as he sought out to transform the neighborhood into an “Africantown.” Over the years, Dabls has been the recipient of a number of grants and awards including a $25,000 Kresge Artist Fellowship in 2011 and a $50,000 cash prize of the Kresge Eminent Artist Award in 2022.

But the sight of the building has come under scrutiny for years as the recent ticket isn’t the first one the museum has received in its 23-year existence.

Prior to the demolition announcement, the museum had plans to host an “MBAD Bead Festival” on Aug. 10 with vendors and live entertainment in hopes to raise funds. However, after volunteers called the property ​​”a place of renewal and healing,” Dabls said not all hope is lost. He said he may have a new building constructed on the demolition site – contingent on the city’s blessing. Sometimes, you cut your losses and move forward,” he said.

“And we would have still been struggling trying to make the repairs before we got hit with another ticket. We still have the land, we still have people interested in rebuilding.”

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