2638 East 21st Street

A handsome but mostly standard-looking mailbox, right? Well, here's the other side:

The flag covers the “8” in the house number. So they've added a second “8” on top of the flag. In all my years of finding mailboxes, I've never seen that obvious trick.

I rolled by (I'm finally back on my dusty bicycle!) February 23rd.

2227 East Kleindale Road

On February 13th, David Aber sent this (almost standard-looking!) mailbox. What makes it unique is a chimney of what looks like real pebbles.

4520 East Glenn Street

Here's a weathered mailbox with red chiles hanging between its two posts. (I grew up in New Mexico, so: Yum!)

I found it on February 10th.

3333 North Silverbell Road

Just by chance, the previous mailbox — which I found on October 22nd (2017) — had rabbits on top and bottom. This one is topped with bighorn sheep (on top of bighorn sheep…) and has a saguaro along the post:

At the left-hand edge of the photo above is the house number in what looks a plate of steel cut with a welding torch:

I found this surprise two hours after the first one.

2991 West Basil Place

Rabbits, rabbits, rabbits…

OK: I'll resist saying — with my punny (or worse) humor — that I “hopped by” on October 22, 2017. (Whoops, too late! :)

3000 West Basil Place

A mailbox painted in a petroglyph style:

I rocked by (sorry :) on October 22, 2017.

530 North San Rafael Avenue

October 21, 2017. Someone loves cats.

4319 East Flower Street

Although these probably aren't the most beautiful mailboxes on Flower Street, they do have a nice floral-type design on the post…

I found them on August 30, 2017.

6562 East Calle Dened

David Aber insists that he doesn't go “fishing for” creative mailboxes and only takes photos when he happens to spot one.

Well, Dave, I think that may be a fish story. :) How do you come up with ones like this??

Let's reel this one in :-P a bit closer and brighten up the Bass a bit with my favorite free photo editor GIMP:

On December 4, 2017, he wrote: “This Largemouth Bass swallowed a mailbox… The fisherman left the weight scale in its mouth. The cover is obviously hand made and very well done.”

We'll go fishin' for more mailboxes in 2018. Happy New Year!

8372 East Balfour Place

Here's our last mailbox for 2017. David Aber found it on April 13th and wrote: “I seem to have a talent for finding mailboxes that look like covered wagons. The one I found at 8372 E. Balfour Pl. is my third.” I think I've found a few, but — after five years of mailboxes (I posted the first in December, 2012) — I've lost track.

Happy 2018! (Many more mailboxes to come!)

6860 and 6870 Placita Caribe

It seems to me that artistic mailboxes come in groups. Some blocks have several; the next blocks might have none. On September 14th, David Aber spotted these two boxes next door to each other.

Let's look at the distant one (on house number 6870) first. Most of it is fairly plain, but there's a beaded butterfly near the top of the shorter post. I'll zoom in digitally so you can see it better:

Here's a view of the box on 6860, more toward the front:

A lot of mailboxes are mounted on camshafts, but this is a perfect match for a '57 Bel Air pickup truck.

Mailbox #500: 6725 East Rosewood Circle

It's hard for me to believe that I've been sharing photos of mailboxes for five years — since December, 2012. The five hundredth mailbox is one that mailbox-hunter extraordinaire David Aber found on September 14, 2017. He calls it “Alpine Chalet”:

Here's to the next 500!

30 East Jacinto Street

On October 8th, David Aber roared past this box on top of a V8 engine in front of Sports & Imports Auto Repair. “For obvious reasons,” he told me, “I call it the V8 Box.”

I cropped the photo above to show just the box:

5212 East Rosewood Street

David Aber calls this the Lizard Box. His photo is from April 28, 2017.

Near 29th & Old Spanish Trail

David Aber took and sent these photos on May 1st, 2017. He wrote:

…
They aren’t true mailboxes any more. They’ve been repurposed. I doubt the Postmaster General would be very happy to find out their new use.
…
The first Doggiebox (1, 2 & 3) was found in the 1800 Block of S. Sunburst Dr. The second Doggiebox (6, 7 & 8) was found in the 1500 Block of S. Desert Vista Dr. When you see the photos you’ll understand why there isn't an address. Both are in the same neighborhood, so I’m guessing they were put there by the Neighborhood Association.

10610 East Camino Quince

David Aber found this Fire Truck mailbox. He wrote that "It’s a bit hard to tell for certain, but I think it … is a mailbox cover. Looks like it was made with a mix of hand-crafting and used parts."

I like the way that the grille seems to open for mail. It makes me wonder what USPS letter carriers think when they make a delivery to a creative box like this… I guess it's obvious where to put the mail?

His photos are from May 1, 2017. Thanks, as always, Dave!

2021 South Sunburst Drive

It's a great box, but what is it?

David Aber, who snapped this photo on May 1, 2017, wrote "The Housebox (or, it could be a church or a schoolhouse?)" and that "it’s a mailbox cover and appears to me to be hand-crafted." (By "mailbox cover", we mean, typically, a printed layer of plastic that's put over the mailbox — vs. paint.) We don't aim to show stand-alone mailbox covers that are probably ordered from a factory — or other standard mailboxes— just Tucson originals.

10619 East Placita Los Reyes

Here's a closeup of one side of this hand-painted box:

Next, the other side. I notice two things about it. First, the scene on the mailbox is painted over the flag. Most mailboxes have a flag that doesn't blend in with the scene. Second, the house number is written on the plastic newspaper tube underneath the box. The number doesn't seem to be anywhere else (including on the other side of the tube — which I didn't show because it looks like, well, a plastic tube):

David Aber snapped these on May 1, 2017.

7557 East 27th Street

As the expression goes: When pigs have wings…

Maybe the Silva family knows something we don't? :)

David Aber flew by this gem (and, lucky for us, he stopped!) on April 26th.

2201 South Avenida Guillermo

David Aber calls that one the Orcabox (because of the swimming orca). He wrote that the owner saw him photographing the mailbox and came out to ask what the h*** he was doing. ;) Once they got to talking, the owner said that his daughter had painted the box. She's talented, eh?

Here's the other side:

This is the second mailbox David found on April 26th.

2301 South Avenida Guillermo

Even through David Aber says he doesn't go looking for especially creative mailboxes, he sure finds them! This plain box with a tiki post is the first of three that he took on April 26th. (We'll see the other two next.)

Thank you, Dave!

1216 East Miles Street

I'll bet that a child painted this deep blue mailbox with cats, a sun, and green something-or-others.

The other side, and the front, have more designs and a cat-shaped flag with a collar and stars:

I pounced as soon as I spotted this gem on April 8th.

3538 East Fairmount Street

I found this mailbox with a political theme on March 23rd.

1705 South Jones Boulevard

This fun mailbox is along the top of a wall at the north side of the complex (the front side, along 28th Street):

It's not actually used for mail…

I took the photo on January 19, 2017.

128-136 East 17th Street

This mailbox is an amazing hodge-podge. The front of the cinder-block post has bluish tiles in different patterns. On the top edge, a green stone plaque has the name Montaño’s. Wrapped around that is a steel vine with a butterfly on top!

This was the last — and most eclectic — of the four mailboxes I spotted on January 12th.