232 East Limberlost Drive: Ten years of mailboxes

Happy 2022! On December 12, 2012, I posted the first mailbox in this blog in What's a mailbox?. Let's get started on another year of boxes.

One of the things I like about artistic mailboxes is that you never know what combinations they'll have. In this case, the house numbers have a desert landscape inside and there's a woodpecker trying to get bugs out of the steel post:

I found this box on December 11, 2021 (ten years after the first mailbox). I'd just left the Stone Curves mural repainting around the corner.

234 East Limberlost Drive: Sun sets on another year of mailboxes

Just at sunset on December 11, 2021, I found this box after I left the Stone Curves mural repainting around the corner:

Next year, the 10th anniversary of this blog will fall on December 12, 2022. Stay tuned for another year of mailboxes!

3410 North Bentley Avenue: Last chance for mail to Santa!

David Aber spotted a cute photo titled in the December 14th Arizona Daily Star, by Kelly Presnell, of a mailbox in the Winterhaven Festival of Lights. It's the first photo in the article Photos: 2021 Winterhaven Festival of Lights. I drove over ASAP, during the day of December 18th, to take a picture of that mailbox:

Of course, the family also has a “real” mailbox. Although it likely doesn't have Christmas lights wrapped around it all year, I'm not sure if the rest of the decoration is only there at Christmas:

319 North Tucson Boulevard

The home actually has two mailboxes. This one is by the street. The other is on top of a high wall. (Many years ago, some people would put a second mailbox high in the air and label it “Air Mail” as a joke. But that one is a pink color with “319” on the side.)

2732 North Orchard Avenue: Box on a tree trunk

Got an axe? Who needs Home Depot?

I spotted this on November 6th.

4407 East Water Street: Bright box with cutouts

Thanks as always to David Aber for this photo. He sent it on August 29.

For some reason, Blogger Maps wouldn't show this address. Here it is on Bing Maps.

2530 North Goyette Avenue: Water and trees

Ddavid Aber sent this photo on August 29. Thank you, Dave.

For some reason, Blogger Maps wouldn't show this address. Here it is on Bing Maps. (Click there.)

3644 East Juarez Street: Chameleon bird

On March 11, 2013, I posted a photo of a (mostly) brown-and-beige bird on top of a mailbox. Fast-forward to October 5, 2021. David Aber sent me a photo of the same bird. The bird had been repainted blue:

Albuquerque mailbox for Veterans Day

I've taken three road trips since June. On my July 2021 trip, in Albuquerque, I spotted this flag-covered mailbox near the Rio Grande:

Can't (couldn't) touch this mailbox: 4218 East 2nd Street

David Sewell, who's moved from Arizona to Virginia, sent a mailbox photo that he took in Tucson on July 4, 2016. It's wrapped with what looks like rusty fence wires:

Google Maps Street View shows that the mailbox was still there in March, 2019. But, for some reason, Blogger Maps wouldn't show this location. Here's the home on Bing Maps.

Thank you, David!

Mailboxes in a painting

I've been traveling much of the past two months — which is one reason I haven't been posting mailboxes. I'm hoping that this can be the first of a long series of posts! It's from an art museum I visited along the way: “Mail Boxes,” dated 1935, by artist Kenneth Callahan, an American who lived 1905-1986:

Nature takes over a mailbox

I'm still busy with Tucson murals. I'm hoping to resume posting Tucson mailboxes by the end of September or so. In the meantime, here's a mailbox somewhere outside Tucson. It's from @SusanSeePhoto on Instagram:

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A post shared by Susan See (@susanseephoto)

Mailbox Art collection by Marcia Tetley

On Pinterest is a collection of fun mailbox photos collected by Marcia Tetley: 110 Mailbox art ideas.

Lots of murals, not enough mailboxes

Besides this blog, I also contribute to The Tucson Murals Project blog. We're just swamped with murals, so I've been spending my spare time trying to catch up and keep track. I'll be back to the boxes ASAP!

1902 North Arcadia Avenue: Split personality

I was there on April 26th.

4821 East Hampton Street: Police! Help! (with my mail...)

We usually don't show mass-produced mailboxes here, but this one is too amazing. (Besides, I need to find mailboxes as amazing as the ones David Aber finds. :) There are plenty of mailboxes like this in photos online, but a close look makes me think this one may be handmade. If you'd like to see more police public call boxes, click there for a DuckDuckGo image search. (DuckDuckGo searches just as Google does, but preserves your privacy.)

I found it on April 26th.

Blog on vacation

I need to take a short break. So I'm suspending this blog for a couple of weeks. Look for more mailboxes in May!

3439 East 28th Street: Steel flowers on a steel trellis

I've been tempted not to show any more mailboxes with steel plants growing along them. (Click there to see examples and info about why.) But they're mostly different from each other, creative, and beautiful. So here's another!

I stopped to smell the flowers (and failed :) on April 7th.

Flowers and a heart: 3761 East Juarez Street

On March 10th…

…I smiled all the way home. :)

150 East 19th Street: Doodles and sun over hills

This mailbox has a sunrise or sunset on two posts with fanciful steel between them:

I found it on February 19th.

Walk across Swan to see...

When I drove up Swan on February 9th to re-photograph the mailboxes around 2005 North Swan and 2013 North Swan, I turned right on Waverly, just south of the Swan mailboxes. I found rows of mailboxes on both sides of Waverly. Each has a different steel cut-out underneath:

The mailbox at 4703 has a post with a lamp on top:

What's behind 2005 and 2007 North Swan

When blog reader Annette recently saw the mailboxes at 2005 and 2007 North Swan in our November 24, 2015 entry, she emailed much more info:

I used to live here for 10 years. Moved out on November 12-2019. This property used to belong to a local pottery artist.

I would also like to add whom the artist was. Her name was Kay Mallik. She was known for her western style pottery. I am not sure when she arrived to Arizona but she had attended the university. I know Kay was producing pottery in the 50's. Location of the mailbox had been her property at one time. The brown brick building south of the mail boxes was her place, and a place for her parents to stay when they visited. The very front of that building was her studio. The little house north of the mail boxes behind the house was her studio.

When Kay passed away in 2001 she was servived by her husband Ruiss Ruiz. Naturally the property went to him. He later remarried to a Hermania Ruiz. The property went to Hermania when he passed.

Truthfully those famous mailboxes are in jeopardy of being removed. Mrs Ruiz's daughter has custody of the property in a quick deed trust and will be eventually be trying to sell both lots of land. To a developer who will have no mercy on those famous landmark mail boxes. Honestly that is a tragedy because it's something that was part of Tucson for so many years. Kay did give a lot of time to this city in some way. Her pottery can be found as vintage pieces. I have a piece of her pottery myself.

I hope this helps with some information about those mailboxes. They are a eye catcher when you are driving on swan or even stuck in traffic at rush hour.

The photo above shows Kay Mallik's place, and the two mailboxes in front, on February 9th. Below is the number plate on the fence next to the entrance:

I took the photos on February 25th.

2013 North Swan repainted (and more)

The November 27, 2015 entry 2013 North Swan Road shows a mailbox along this busy street. When I stopped by on February 9, 2021, to take photos of the mailbox and building just south (see next week's entry), I noticed that the mailbox at 2013 had changed. Here are the south side, then the north side:

But there's more. I glanced at the buildings on the land behind the mailbox and saw murals. There are photos in today's Tucson Murals Project blog entry, Zooming in on 2013 North Swan.

Metal flowers and leaves: 3372 East 26th Street

This rusty-metal mailbox has flowers. Behind it is a matching fence of plants and leaves:

Here's the other side. Underneath the box is a flower with a butterfly:

Update (April 2, 2021): The homeowner sent a comment with details about the box; see below. I cropped the photo of the west side (the second photo above) to show the turtle flag:

4261 East Camino de la Colina: Miscellaneous mailbox

I haven't seen many mailboxes with a post made of a rusty machine, petrified wood, a little pot with a fresh plant, and… well, you decide:

I walked away, puzzled, on January 28th.

4026 East Camino de la Colina: Reptiles and amphibians, oh my!

(I just saw The Wizard of Oz. A nod to Dorothy.) This green mailbox is a bit faded, but it's still as fun:

I crawled by on January 28th.