2350 East Elm Street

This home is amazing... like an art gallery open to the public, along two Tucson streets (it's on the southwest corner of Norton & Elm). If you've been following the Tucson Murals Project blog for the past year or so, you've seen the colorful dragons on the south end of the wall. When I rolled by earlier this week — May 14th — I noticed the mailbox. It's not special, but the decoration around it is:

And there's more: wall decorations, sculpture, even a dinosaur skeleton. You can see all of those on the TucsonArt.info page 2350 Elm Street and the Tucson Murals Project page Maybe a mural, part 46: Exquisite on Elm.

4028 East 17th Street

This white mailbox has handpainted suns, a saguaro flag, and a weathered wood post. I found it on March 29th.

103 South Calle de Jardin

The mural-covered front wall of this beautiful home has a unique mailbox shaped like a building:

The wall was signed at the top right: the ladybug surrounded by 11-5-2002 Manny Garcia. I stopped by on April 25th.

You can see more photos of the home on the Tucson Murals Project blog from today and from 2010.

Update (October 17, 2022): There are closeups of the mailbox in today's post Flashback to this garden box: 103 South Calle de Jardin.

3930 East 17th Street

This blue mailbox with handpainted flowers is on the corner of 17th and Longfellow:

I took the photos on March 29th.

4020 East 17th Street

A mailbox with terracotta tiles and sun on the post, at 4020 E. 17th:

I was here on March 29th.

Multiplicative mailboxes (4027 East Santa Barbara, etc.)

As I ride my bicycle around Tucson, hunting for art (and getting exercise), I start to notice patterns in the creative mailboxes.

Here's one example. It's at 4027 East Santa Barbara Avenue. It's also at 4228 & 4156 East Paseo Dorado... and probably other places.

It looks locally-made and creative. But three are enough!

I've made a list of mailboxes that you won't see many of here. You can find the list above, just under the title of any entry on this blog: click on Not these mailboxes.

3543 East 23rd Street (our 150th egg-cellent box!)

A stuffed bird on top (and iridescent eggs underneath the bird, and on the fence in front) make this black mailbox worth a peep:

I fluttered by (and stopped) on March 29th.

Thanks for following this blog. It started just five months ago... we already have 150 posts (and, er, mailboxes). Time flies.

120/114 South Calle de Jardin

These matching bright green mailboxes on a post with a sign underneath saying "San Clemente Historical Neighborhood Homes 120/114". I was there on April 25th.

The home at 114 S. Calle de Jardin has murals, too. Click there to see them on the Tucson Murals Project blog.

3910 East La Creciente

In front of the pretty home (which you can see on the Tucson Art Information site by clicking there), the mailbox had a whimsical little shoe with a big rock in it (to hold the shoe down, I'd bet).

I rode through that art-filled neighborhood on April 25th.

10035 West Rudasill Road

Try to find the “mailbox” in this Rube Goldberg-ian contraption! (Hint: it's a tube with mail inside.)

Gregg Townsend took the photo — according to the data that his camera stored in the photo file, it was on December 13, 2010.

Thanks so much, Gregg!

5150 West Paseo Del Campo

Gregg Townsend sent this photo of a rocket-mounted mailbox out near the Tucson Mountains — in a place I probably won't make it on my bicycle for quite some time. Maybe the homeowners work in one of the space-related programs at the U of A?

The photo's EXIF metadata says that it was taken on March 8, 2009. (Cameras' built-in clocks aren't always set correctly. Gregg, if you suspect that date is wrong, please let me know and I'll update this.)

106 South Calle de Jardín

This maildrop (a slot in the side of a home where mail drops to the floor inside) is part of a garage wrapped with tile (which you can see on the Tucson Murals Project blog by clicking there):

Google Maps couldn't find this address. Here's a Mapquest map.

I rode through the neighborhood on April 25th.

825 South Fremont Avenue

This three-headed mailbox with a rusty finish is mounted on a crooked pole.

Next to it is a small cactus and sculpture garden.

I was there on March 3rd.

233 South El Volador

This mailbox is in the middle of a long mural-covered wall which you can see by clicking there to visit the Tucson Murals Project blog. The fun here is in the flag:

I took these photos near sunset on April 28th.

505 South Columbus Boulevard

Back in 2011, the Tucson Murals Project posted a photo of a wall with a ribbon of tiles running along it. We titled it Maybe a mural, part 17. Here's an overall photo (to see a close-up of the wall, click on the link above):


Fast-forward to April 25th. I rode by again and noticed a mailbox out front (it's at the near edge of that far wall. That led to the idea of posting murals and mailboxes together, each on their respective blog. (The mailbox blog hadn't started back then.)

The closeup I shot last week:

I'll post more pairs of mailboxes with murals, or with other public art, during May. Stay tuned!

3342 East 27th Street

On March 3rd, I found a mailbox with hand-painted mountain scenes:

(Cropped down to just the painting, it doesn't look like much like a mailbox, does it?)

The artist's signature (at the lower right corner of the second photo) is SKay or Skay.

716 South Fremont Avenue

This black mailbox (with rusty spots) has what looks like a smiley face... or maybe a swoosh and dots? Whatever it is, I found this box on March 3rd.

1127 East 20th Street

This cylindrical mailbox has the house number on a big sign behind — between its unfinished wooden posts. I took its photo on March 3rd.

1008 South Mountain Avenue

The white post is covered on both sides by some kind of lizard? Whatever it is, it's definitely hand-made. I found it on March 3rd.

1035 South Highland Avenue

This corrugated blue “box” is the only triangular mailbox I've seen so far.

I found it on March 3rd.

1310 East 18th Street

The door on this rust-colored mailbox has a stylized sun. I'm guessing that the creature on top of is a griffin (or gryphon). What do you think?

I flew by on March 3rd.

2437 East 24th Street

I found another down-and-out (but also artistic) mailbox along this section of 24th street on March 3rd. It's (sort of) black and has grapevines twined between the posts.

2431 1/2 East 24th Street

This rusty black-painted mailbox, with what looks like an agave between the two posts, seems to have been out here for quite a while.

I found it on March 3rd.

3361 East 30th Street

This brown (natural rust color?) mailbox has cut-out clouds and mountains on top. I found it on March 3rd.

3930 East Paseo Dorado

This blue, white and red mailbox looks like it might have been painted as the French flag (though the blue is mostly lighter than the royal blue, maybe it's just faded?). A Wikipedia article says that the mount side should be royal blue. Hmmm. These might also just be U.S.A. colors... a car in the driveway had a U.S. flag above the window.

This was the last mailbox I found on my February 26th ride along these streets east of Randolph Park.

4047 East Paseo Dorado

I photographed this mailbox, with faded desert scenes on both side (and a butterfly flag), on February 26th.

4116 East Paseo Dorado

Like yesterday's mailbox, this one has a “post” that looks broken. My guess is that the original post was broken somehow, so the owner put the same box on this stack of bricks — maybe the base of the original post? This arrangement also leaves the box just a foot or two off of the ground...

Maybe a drunken mailbox-smasher was weaving down this block of Paseo Dorado? :)

I came across this scene on February 26th.

4137 East Paseo Dorado

Looks like someone had an accident! This black mailbox seems to have been knocked off its metal post, which is now bent (also notice the scrolls on the ground). Now it's duct-taped to a stack of cinderblock.

I took the photo on February 26th, so this might have been fixed by now. (In tomorrow's, I'll show a mailbox nearby that looks like it might've met the same fate as this one — but with a different result.)

4228 & 4156 East Paseo Dorado

As you've seen here, artistic mailboxes seem to come in groups. These two mailboxes are a block apart from each other along Paseo Dorado — with the house number, quarter sun and saguaro between the posts.


I photographed both of them them on February 26th.

4252 East Paseo Dorado

We don't usually show mailboxes with Kokopelli because there are so many of them, but this one was more interesting than most. Check out the flag, too.

I took the photo on February 26th.

4261 Camino de la Colina

This black mailbox is mounted on some kind of machinery. If you recognize it, please leave a comment below.

(Comments can be anonymous, if you'd like — though they are moderated.)

I found it on February 26th.

3549 East 23rd Street: Free Beer after Tax Day

Mailboxes are useful for hanging signs from — such as the FREE BEER sign on this porch mailbox.

I have no idea if they're serious, what kind of beer it might be, or whether they're using their supply tonight for their own after-tax celebration.

(I took the photo on March 29th.)

4114 Camino de la Colina

This metallic-colored mailbox a flag made from a ratcheting socket wrench handle — with other hardware added for decoration:

I took the photos on February 26th.

4049 Camino de la Colina

For a short street (as far as I know, it's just four blocks long — between Alvernon & Columbus), Camino de la Colina has a lot of great mailboxes! This black box is no exception. It has handpainted numbers 4049 in fun styles on both sides. It also has “Jung!” on the end... who, Carl Jung?... and what does he have to do with mail? (If you see the connection, please leave a comment at the end of this article!)

I found it on February 26th.

P.S. I've updated yesterday's entry to also show the other side of that critterlicious mailbox. Click there to see it.

4026 Camino de la Colina

This green mailbox has handpainted critters on both sides. I snapped it on February 26th:

3965 Camino de la Colina

This brown metal mailbox has a pull-out horizontal flag and big metal flowers on the pole — which is made of four pieces of wood.

I found it on February 26th.

3956 Camino de la Colina

This mailbox with a blue-painted wooden door is in a post made of a mixture of bricks. One has the house number painted on (actually, painted as an outline). The flag is mounted on (what else?) a brick.

I found it on February 26th.