306) When you see that large building looming in the background, do you think “hey, that’s that old hospital” or “hey, that’s the old Amazon headquarters”? Your answer says a lot about your and your place in this city. None of that has anything to do with this box, however, because he’s focused on collecting mail from passers-by in the ID. He doesn’t have time to reminisce about buildings that are way off in in the background.

305) This is not a happy mailbox. The years it has spent stationed outside the Youth Detention Facility (aka Kid Jail) has left it hardened and bitter. It has seen too much sadness, felt too much pain. Still, it does its civic duty and accepts your mail, just not joyfully.

304) It’s no secret that much of downtown Seattle has changed in the past decade. This box at 9th and Lenora has certainly witnessed much of this, as new building have risen one after the other, creating an unfamiliar cityscape. So… why am I standing so far away from the box? Because this particular box is a delusional blowhard who will talk your ear off with its less-than-accurate retelling of the changing scenery. I stopped listening when he was going on about the flowing lava fields trapping the early prairie (prairie?!) settlers on the edge of the iceberg where Amazon built their first office.

303) When you see me excitedly pointing at a box, it can only mean one thing… it was a box that was hiding from me, but I found it! Before I head out to capture a box, I try to spot it on Google Street View so I can be sure of its location. Street View, however, can fail me when the box is hidden, such as when it’s tucked away behind a building on an inner-city campus. For times like this, I have to adopt the ways of my ancestral mailbox hunters and actually get out of the car and walk around a bit. Crude, but effective.

302) It was cold. It was snowing. It was dark. I wasn’t too happy about being out in these conditions, but this moment had to be captured. Notice my tense, grumpy stance… now compare it to the defiant proud positioning of this mailbox. It doesn’t care about a dusting of snow. It doesn’t care about sub-freezing temperatures. It just wants to do it’s job and collect your mail.

301) This box has been vexing me for months. MONTHS! I drive past it several times a week, but it has always been when traffic was thick and there just wasn’t an easy way to pull over and get the shot. All that changed when I found myself in the area early on this Sunday morning. No traffic, no excuses. I got you box, I finally got you.

300) And here we are, box number 300! As you can tell, it was a real party atmosphere at this fine Eastlake box this morning… hats, noisemakers, signs… we had it all! The box was very proud to be selected for this significant milestone, though he was a bit disappointed there was no cake.

299) Yesterday I posted a stunning example of public infrastructure that was obviously inspired by the humble mailbox. I thought it was the only such example in the city, but I was wrong! I had never noticed how the Convention Center street-arch-thing also takes its shape from this trusted public servant. Look at that majestic sweeping curve… it’s like being inside a giant mailbox skeleton.

298) This may be the most single influential mailbox in the entire city. What makes me say that? Well, just have a look at the background in this photo. It’s a bit tough to see here, but beyond those red lights you’ll notice that the box’s likeness is cast one, two, THREE times in that huge concrete wall! When they built that wall, they could have left it a bland, flat surface. But someone had a vision, a vision that led them to immortalize the box that was watching from across the street.

297) It took me three attempts to find this box. Seriously, I had sought it out on two previous occasions, and failed to find it both times. My data told me it was on this block, but it erroneously said that it was on the other side of the street. So two other times, there I was, looking up and down the sidewalk spotting nothing, all the while amusing the hell out of this guy. He was hiding in plain sight the whole time.