Skip to content

Keep Your Eyes Peeled for the Rare “Scenic Drive” Sign

Seattle’s enigmatic reminders of roads less taken

By Jennifer Meyers May 10, 2016

A street sign on a pole in a city.
A street sign on a pole in a city.

This article originally appeared in the May 2016 issue of Seattle magazine.

These days, Seattle’s streets are peppered with signs proclaiming road closures, revised routes and reminders not to “block the box.”

But keep your eyes peeled and you may spot a rare “Scenic Drive” sign. The signs are the legacies of a 1958 collaboration between the City of Seattle and the Chamber of Commerce, created to promote Seattle’s natural beauty and to give tourists an easy way to maneuver through the city’s scenic areas. A local artist, Robert Mathiesen, created the simple design—which features a blue Neptune’s trident representing local waters, and/or two elongated green triangles representing our evergreen trees—painted on wooden signs, which were eventually upgraded to aluminum. The signs remained until the 1980s, when the majority of them were removed to make way for more directional signage.

According to a City of Seattle spokesperson, the few signs that remain—including one near the Fauntleroy ferry terminal and another on northbound State Route 99 near the Battery Street Tunnel—are no longer maintained by the city and will probably be removed eventually as well.

In the meantime, they’re quaint reminders of a time when tourists used signs rather than Google Maps to navigate the city.

 

Follow Us

Studio Sessions: Jo Cosme

Studio Sessions: Jo Cosme

The Seattle-based multimedia artist and 2026 Neddy Award winner challenges the postcard version of Puerto Rico and centers the persistence of its people.

Jo Cosme knows how seductive a postcard can be. The Seattle-based Boricua (Puerto Rican) multimedia artist works across photography, installation, video, sound, and interactive elements to examine and pull apart how Puerto Rico is seen, sold, and misunderstood from the outside. Trained in photojournalism, with a BFA in photography from Puerto Rico School of Fine…

Seattle's Drag Brunch Has History

Seattle’s Drag Brunch Has History

The city’s Sunday shows started long before the mimosas got bottomless.

There was a time not too long ago, when drag performances—now a mainstay of Seattle’s queer scene—were kept under wraps. And when brunches, complete with singing and dancing queens dressed in dazzling drag as you sipped mimosas, weren’t a Sunday staple.  During the 1940s and ‘50s, an era largely shaped by restrictive laws and bias…

Studio Sessions: Sangram Majumdar

Studio Sessions: Sangram Majumdar

Working at the confluence of history, culture, and various painting traditions, UW associate professor Sangram Majumdar is one of this year’s Neddy Artist Award winners.

Discover the art of UW professor Sangram Majumdar, a 2026 Neddy Artist Award winner. Learn about his inspiration and upcoming Seattle exhibition at Cornish.

Rearview Mirror: A Georgian Dinner, Sidewalk Sips, and One-of-a-Kind Clothing

Rearview Mirror: A Georgian Dinner, Sidewalk Sips, and One-of-a-Kind Clothing

Things I did, saw, ate, learned, or read in the past week (or so).

A new life for old clothes To celebrate one year in its current studio, the FXRY—a clothing repair service available via in-person appointments, home pickup, or mail-in drop off—is dropping its first collection. A small batch of reworked pieces, Second Mark will feature 13 vintage barn jackets, cropped, chain-stitched, and renewed into a completely unique, one-of-one…