Hidden in the alley on the 5100 block between Alcott and Homer in Cochran Heights, elves live in peace and harmony with their human neighbors.
Neighbor Judy Sullivan, who has lived on Alcott for 40 years, noticed the elves building homes, planting gardens and developing the alley last year. Before then, the alley was in rough shape. There are no driveways on the alley, and when the garbage trucks changed their routes to pick up on the streets, the alley became overgrown.
Sullivan made it her mission to clear out the alley. When her neighbors began to help, she saw a future that could include small pocket gardens like the ones she saw on a visit to Portsmouth, New Hampshire.
Around that time, elf houses started popping up along the fence line, in trees and under branches in the shaded alley. Plants and wildflowers were also planted, presumably by the elves. The “Secret Garden” is tended by elves according to a sign, and the village contains a castle, market, a love shack and more.
The village grew to span three human house back yards. Neighbors have started walking their dogs and bringing their children to visit the elves in what was once an abandoned alley full of construction debris.
“Nothing has been destroyed or taken.” Sullivan says. “Things just appear.”
See the rest of the elf garden below.
