3150 East 26th Street

This pair of spotted mailboxes is at 3142 & 3150 East 26th, just south of Reid Park.

I spotted ;-) them on December 16th.

55 East Calle BelleZZZa

I usually don't post mailboxes on a Sunday. But I'm making an exception for New Year's Day, a great time for a snooze.

(Probably) no holiday mailboxes this week

Last week, I posted one holiday mailbox every day; I'd found a lot of them! I was sure I'd find more, but I haven't yet. I'll keep looking around and post any I find before New Year's Day. Otherwise, we'll be back to our regularly-scheduled mailboxes on January 3rd.

Happy 2017!

Holiday mailbox #7: 3186 East 25th Street

Why not cover a mailbox with lights?

The street was (like a lot of Tucson streets) pitch-black. So the lights really stand out.

Holiday mailbox #6: 2937? East 19th Street

This mailbox looks a bit worn. So do the boughs and ribbon.

For some reason, I didn't get the exact address. The camera data says it's at 2937? East 19th.

Holiday mailbox #5: 2807 East 20th Street

The tinsel matches that on the home:

There are some flowers on the side, but there's also a sort of disk on top that reminded me of some kind of antenna. When I got close, though, I could see that it used the be the face of a cat! It had faint black marks under fresh white paint. I used the Burn tool on my favorite free editor GIMP to darken just those areas:

I don't photograph every holiday mailbox I see, but I backed up right away and parked when I rolled by this one on December 22nd.

Holiday mailbox #4: 6025 East 5th Street

It's been a long time since I watched Sesame Street, but could that be Kermit the Frog dressed up in a sort of Santa outfit?

I hopped by on December 18th.

Holiday mailbox #3: 3174 East 26th Street

I'm not sure if any of this is for our December holidays — maybe it's more for Halloween? Anyway, I thought it was unique.

This first photo is an overview:

The second photo is a closeup of some of the jack-o'-lanterns, birds, etc.

I found it south of Reid Park on December 16th.

Holiday mailbox #2: 3118 East 25th Street

This slightly worn-out building mailbox is worth showing even when its post isn't wrapped with tinsel. This is the west side.

(Note for photographers: I used the free Photoshop-like editor GIMP Intelligent Scissors tool to brighten the mailbox and darken the background.)

And the east side:

I spotted it as I drove round and round a neighborhood south of Reid Park on December 16th.

Holiday mailbox #1: 3172 East 25th Street

I've been super-busy for more than a month, so (except for the previous post), I haven't been able to take the time to find and post mailboxes. To make up for that ;-), I'm aiming to post one holiday-decorated mailbox between now and (I hope) New Year's Day.

Here's a start: a boring black box and post covered with tinsel from bottom to top… and a red bow on the door. I wonder how the letter carrier gets past the bow?

I was there December 16th.

Tiny holiday mailboxes

I couldn't resist posting a photo of little mailboxes on a shelf in the Christmas section of a dollar store:

Happy holidays (or the greeting you prefer for this part of the year…)!

4225 East Oxford Drive

Here's another great find by David Aber, emailed to me on November 1st. The box is in the middle of the photo, but the surroundings (including the box behind the center of interest) are so colorful that I'll start with his overall shot:

Next, the same photo cropped to show just the bug:

Thanks, as always, David! (You're keeping this bug blog “in flight” (sorry) until I can catch up with the rest of my life!

539 East Linden Street

David Aber rolled by this mostly-complete mailbox along the Bronx Wash:

It's more complete than the front-end bike-box shown on August 5th.

He writes that the logo on the luggage rack indicates that it this bike is an old BMW.

9087 East 7th Street

David Aber emailed this photo on October 6th. The mailbox has a couple (at least) of coats of paint; one is wearing off. Though I'm not sure the homeowner meant the box to look as weathered, I like the effect!

8441 East Appomattox Street

David Aber finds lots of mailboxes in parts of town that I don't reach on my bicycle. Here's one he calls “The Little Engine That Could.” He wrote that it's “made of steel … The homeowner is a retired metalworker from TEP. Obviously skilled.”

He emailed the photo on October 6th.

Update (November 23, 2020): There's another locomotive mailbox at 7046 Flamenco Place.

2027 East Helen Street

I flew by this welded, rusted bug on September 30th.

4337 East Glenn Street

Here's the third of three mailboxes along this stretch of Glenn. Let's start with a view from the top:

That's the east side. Next, from the west:

My trip along Glenn was on September 19th.

All in a row in Santa Fe

Once in a while, while I'm on the road, I'll show a mailbox somewhere outside of Tucson. Here are nine of them from Santa Fe on October 8th. The row is between galleries on artistic Canyon Road:

The exact location is behind Gallery 901, along Gypsy Alley. I was there on October 8th.

3307 East Ventana Canyon Drive

This is the fourth and last box in the series by custom mailbox maker Emily Mann of Solaz Designs. I asked if she had any new mailboxes to show all of you while I'm out of town (and low on mailboxes).

This is her “Wizard of Oz tree” mailbox. It's about 7 feet tall and as wide!

Here's a closer view from the same side.

Thanks once more, Emily, for helping me (and us) over these four weeks.

4349 East Glenn Street

Ever seen a ladybug mailbox?

I think that's what this is: red with black spots and two springy antennae.

Here's the west side:

I buzzed by on September 19th.

5450 North Calle la Cima

Let's look at the third box in this series by Emily Mann of Solaz Designs. She sent these photos of her “tree of life” mailbox.

First, a view from the front.

Next, the right corner… with the bird in front and another on the side. I cropped her original photo to just the top, so this photo is a bit small and fuzzy:

There's another bird on the left side. Underneath, sideways near the top of the pole, is Emily Mann solaz.biz.

Whattabox! Great work, Emily.

4661 East Glenn Street

I finally made my mailbox-hunting trip along the east end of Glenn — in central Tucson, not the part near Houghton Road — west to Country Club. (Actually, I started at Sahuara & Grant, then looped north to join Glenn and headed west from there. It's a nice detour off of busy Grant Road.) I'd spotted three fun mailboxes and wanted to come back. Here's one of the three:

That's the west side. Here's the east:

I slithered by on September 19th.

600 East Calle Concordia

Here's another photo of a box by Emily Mann of Solaz Designs. Emily makes custom mailboxes.

She calls this one a “tailored box.”

Thanks for sharing, Emily!

5630 East Beverly Street

We've already seen one covered-wagon mailbox. Here's another, from David Aber:

He rolled by it on September 10th.

11910 North Koi Drive

I'm almost out of both mailboxes and time… I also won't be back home and settled until the end of October. A year or two ago, I met Emily Mann of Solaz Designs. She makes custom mailboxes; a few of hers are already on the blog. I asked her if she had any new mailboxes that I could show here. Right away, she sent enough photos that — along with the photos I've taken recently — I have plenty. I'll show one of her boxes every Thursday for the next few weeks. (Blogger lets you add entries to be published later. That's what I'm doing here.)

As you might guess, she calls this one “quailbox.”

Just as muralists create murals (which you can see on the Tucson Murals Project blog, mailbox artists create boxes. If you know of other Tucson mailbox makers — those that create “one-of-a-kind” boxes — please let me know with a comment below.

By the way, Blogger/Google couldn't find this address (today, at least… that problem sesms to be random. Here's a Mapquest link instead.

3362 East 26th Street

The mailbox is a tan color with (what looks like a child's) handpainted scene on the east side. The west side was blank when I found the box on September 18th:

6122 East 17th Street

David Aber took this photo, of a white mailbox with a handpainted desert scene, on September 10th.

6120 East 29th Street

The Blog is Back! I'm also changing the second blog entry each week to publish on Thursday instead of Friday. (The Tucson Murals Project blog will now be posting three times a week — including Fridays — so I'm moving the mailboxes to not come the same day.)

I usually don't show commercially-made mailboxes here. But this one, sent by David Aber, looks handmade to me — even if The Edisonville Wood Shop has made plenty of them, I'd bet this is the only one in Tucson.

(You can click on the photo for a larger view — on a desktop or laptop computer, at least.)

Below is a view of the “barn doors” (the opening for mail) at the front:

Blog on vacation

The Tucson Mailbox Art will be on vacation for a while. But we'll be back! You can watch for new entries on the @TucsonArt Twitter feed, or use one of the ways near the top-right corner of each of this blog page. One is by watching one of our RSS feeds (if you've done that, you'll know what we mean). Or enter your email address in the box titled (obviously enough) “Follow this blog by Email.”

Thanks! Please wish us a good vacation… we're ready (and we'll mostly be way off-line).

4000 West Gates Pass Road

Driving toward Gates Pass on August 8th, I rolled past a mailbox that looked custom-built. I found a parking place and walked downhill to have a closer look. It's partly a rust-like color (same as the rusted finish that's popular on metal these days) but with some yellow splotches or flakes. It has a critter flag and a base that looks a little bit like a fire hydrant.

I didn't see any street number on a sign, in little plates stuck to the box, etc. There weren't many homes in the area, but I spotted one up the road with a number around 4100. Then I came back to give this box a closer look.

Aha. Along the post are four numbers made from steel rods. They're backward in the second shot above, but you can see that they say 4000. Clever.

2145 East Glenn Street

As I've written recently, Glenn Street seems to have more than its share of creative mailboxes. Now that I'm (finally!) getting out on my bicycle again, I think a ride along Glenn will get you some photos to enjoy. (While I was out of the picture — so to speak — David Aber has been filling in the gaps. There'll be more of his finds in the future, too.)

Speaking of David, I think he'd call this “Dragon Box” for the sculpture “post” under the plain vanilla mailbox. Or is that a dragon?? If you have another suggestion, please leave a comment below.

I snapped this photo on July 4th.

1231 East Edison Street

This faded white mailbox with desert scenes is in front of the Tucson Community Meditation Center:

I drove mindfully by it on June 25th.

7042 East Calle Neptuno

This plain black box sits in a rusted frame made of mesh, perched on a square post and a saguaro, with javelina above and below. It's in the part of town with streets named in Spanish for planets (Neptuno), stars and galaxies.

David Aber flew by (I'm not sure if he did any orbits while taking this photo) on May 19th.

2062 South Avenida Ursa

Here's another mailbox that David Aber found in the corner of Tucson with streets named for stars and planets — and using calle and avenida instead of street and avenue.

You can tell why David called it “Driftwood Box.” He floated by (than emailed it, thanks) on May 19th.

6433 East Calle Dened

Like the previous mailbox, this one is in the part of Tucson, southeast of 22nd & Wilmot, with semicircular streets named for stars and constellations. The clever “post” is made of the front fork and handlebars of a motorcycle (if you know which one, please leave a comment below!) and the box itself has a headlight mounted on front:

David Aber hit the brakes when he saw this on May 19th.

As usual, I can't thank you enough for your contributions to this blog, Dave.

6902 East Calle Neptuno

David Aber sent this photo May 19th. He calls it (for obvious reasons) the Choo Choo Box:

I'm not sure if the homeowners made this clever locomotive-engine-shaped mailbox. But, whoever made it, the creativity of artists continues to amaze me. (They even attached a “smokestack” to the top of the mailbox itself!)