Alpine’s Dead Dolly Lane, a private driveway off of Japatul Road, is a popular place for people who want to take selfies, self portraits of people using their cell phone camera.
The selfie spot is partly the creation of artist Toni Fusco, 58, owner of the art and the land, that has doll contributions from strangers and her own collection of dolls added to it. It was taken down but rebuilt by Fusco and pals like Lisa McDade a few years back. Dead Dolly Lane is just one part of her artistic expression that is more known on the internet, than by many in the county of San Diego.
“People drop off boxes of dolls and they contribute their own dolls,” said Fusco. “They really have a lot of fun.”
The dolls are not in pristine condition. Some hang by a foot, are damaged and idiosyncratic. Fusco said that visitors have said they had the same doll but it didn’t look like the one on the fence.
“I like this, it’s not too creepy,” said Alexi Richer, part of a Canadian cycling team that was cycling past it and stopped for selfies. Richer thought Dead Dolly Lane reminded him of the doll work of artist Jan Faber.
One of Richer’s teammates, Sophie Pascal, had seen it on Facebook before. The team was training on the backroads of East County and made a point of stopping for selfies.
According to Alpine resident Pene Manale, who is familiar with the artwork, the spot is popular for selfies with motorcycle groups and motorists taking road trips through the area.
“I’ve seen more photo shoots and more selfies taken in the last several years,” said Cheryl Sanpo, a neighbor.
Fusco has a number of anecdotes about those taking selfies.
“I pulled out of my drive-way and a bunch of (women in their 20s) were dressed up as baby dolls doing a photo shoot,” she said.
According to Fusco she never played with dolls but was given a doll none-the-less that is on the fence.
The fence was a manifestation of an idea her friend suggested, to put up signs, that are in Gaelic, Spanish, and Italian, and dolls to ward off anyone who came on her 7-acre parcel.
According to Fucsco, she had trouble with fires on her land started and left by immigrants. The signs can be viewed as intimidating; one of them has written on them “Welcome to the land of the witch….”
“The signs are not-malicious,” said Fusco. “I used to cook breakfast for groups of men.”
Fusco said one time the group of trespassers numbered around 70.
Fusco, who lives on the property with long-time significant-other Patrick O’Hara, was an art major at SDSU and has taught sugar art at Foothills Adult School, focuses more on the dolls. So much so that she created a self-published single book, ‘The Dolls of Dead Dolly Lane’, that she is looking for a publisher to do a reprint. The book, that features pictures of the dolls only, is a photographic tribute to some of the damaged, mangled dolls on the fence.
Her family has owned land and lived in Alpine for decades.