My name is Janine Whitfield, and I'm born and raised in Detroit, but I was born on the

west side of Detroit.

And really just climbing the corporate ladder within the banking world.

And I was procrastinating one day going back to work because I had bad news for my clients.

And instead of taking my normal route, I decided to drive through this area on the east

side of Detroit.

I tried to take a turn down a street called Benson and a car was on my tail and literally

forced me to turn down Heidelberg Street on a hot June afternoon in 1993.

And so I'm rolling down the street and my mouth just drops open.

I can't believe it.

I'm looking at this crazy, wild place.

I crack my window and I say, unbeknownst to me, to the artist, Tyree Gytin, I literally

said, what in the hell is all of this?

And he said to me, he says, well, why don't you get out and check it out.

It's kind of like a metaphysical experience, supernatural, philosophical is all of that.

I'm Abby Peralt and this is Atlas Obscura, a celebration of the world's strange, incredible

and wondrous places.

Today we're heading to East Detroit to experience the Heidelberg project.

We'll meet the artist who transformed this largely abandoned street into an immersive

living museum, which grew into something even bigger after this.

And so you're driving down the street, you turn onto Heidelberg Street and all of

sudden you see these trees up and down the block and all of the trees, they have clocks

...