At the Fremont Space Building, 600 North 36th Street (northeast corner of Evanston Ave North) planetary orbs hang like lanterns and a sidewalk mosaic of paint & glasswork depicts the galaxy. The artist is Jessica Randall & the Fremont Arts Council for work at this building owned by Brian Regan, wo also owns the Saturn Building at 3417 Evanston Avenue North.
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Fremont Public Art: Saturn and The Rocket
The corner of North 35th Street & Evanston Avenue North contains two art installations in an outer-space theme.
The Saturn building is topped by a twelve-foot-tall fiberglass replica of the planet Saturn. The planet is illuminated at night by solar panels in its 24-foot-diameter ring. The orb was created by Brian Regan, the owner of the Saturn building at 3417 Evanston Avenue North.
The newer (2013) Saturn complements the older art piece across the street, the Fremont Rocket at 3420 Evanston Avenue North. The Rocket, installed by the Fremont business association in 1994, bears the Fremont crest and motto “De Libertas Quirkas,” which means “freedom to be peculiar.”
The Rocket is purported to be made of genuine military surplus parts including the tail boom of a Fairchild C-119 transport aircraft. The Fremont Business Assocation bought The Rocket for $750 from an army surplus store in Seattle.
Fremont Public Art: The Berlin Wall Fragment
The Berlin Wall divided East and West Germany and was torn down by its citizens on November 9, 1989, during the collapse of dictatorial rule of the Communist countries of Eastern Europe. We remember this significant historical event at the Berlin Wall and what it represents, the freedom of self-rule.
The Berlin Wall was completely demolished at that time, and fragments were carried away as mementos. The fragment which has been installed as public art in Fremont, is located on Troll Avenue at North 34th Street, underneath the Aurora Bridge, at 744 North 34th Street.
The Fremont fragment of the Berlin Wall is twelve feet high and four feet wide. It was originally installed in Fremont in the year 2001 close to the spot where it is now. It was put into storage while the present building was under construction in 2016-2017, then was set up on the sidewalk.
The plaque explaining the fragment says: “This piece of the Berlin Wall arrived in Fremont in 2001 to commemorate the role of Seattle and Boeing’s C-47 in the Berlin Airlift of 1948.” The Berlin Airlift was the efforts of American, British and French cargo planes to supply the portions of the city which had been blockaded by the Soviet Union.
Fremont Public Art: The Lenin Statue
In 1981, the Communist Party of Czechoslovakia commissioned Bulgarian sculptor Emil Venkov to create a statue that portrayed Vladimir Lenin as a bringer of revolution. Briefly installed in Poprav, Czechoslovakia, the 16-foot bronze statue was sent to a scrapyard after the 1989 fall of Communism.
The statue in the scrapyard was discovered by Lewis Carpenter, an English teacher from Issaquah, Washington, who was teaching in Poprav and knew the artist. Purchasing the statue with his own funds, Carpenter mortgaged his house to ship it to the USA.
But the City of Issaquah refused to display the statue of Lenin and, after Carpenter’s sudden death, it was sent to a foundry in the Fremont neighborhood of Seattle, to be melted down.
The statue of Lenin was saved again, this time by the foundry’s founder, Peter Bevis. He convinced the Fremont Chamber of Commerce to display it until a buyer could be found. The statue was unveiled in 1995 and moved to its current location, 3526 Fremont Place North, in 1996. It remains controversial, however, its hands frequently painted red to symbolize the blood on Vladimir Lenin’s hands. Other people admire the irony of a symbol of oppression which is now looking out over the Fremont neighborhood of Seattle where the motto is, “the freedom to be peculiar.”
Here’s more about “what was there before” Lenin: a gas station.
Fremont Public Art: Three Billy Goats
Fremont’s famous Troll, built in 1990, is based upon the Norwegian folktale of three billy goats who wanted to get across a bridge where a troll lived below. Fremont’s Troll is underneath the Aurora Bridge at the intersection of North 36th Street and Troll Avenue.
In tribute to the Troll, on the corner of North 35th Street and Troll Avenue there is a metalwork group of three billy goats, created in 2015.
The three billy goats represent the work of one of Fremont’s volunteer groups, the Friends of the Troll’s Knoll. This group has done other artworks such as an arched garden gate, has done plantings for erosion control and they have periodic clean-up work parties.
Fremont Public Art: The Fremont Troll
On North 36th Street, underneath the Aurora Bridge, lives the Fremont Troll.
The Norwegian folk tale about a large and ugly troll living under a bridge and the three hungry billy goats who are afraid to cross is forever immortalized in this iconic statue designed and executed by Professor of Architecture Steve Badanes and his students at the University of Washington, in response to a contest sponsored by the Fremont Arts Committee. Intended to fill up a “problem area” below the Aurora Bridge, the popular Fremont Troll was dedicated October 31, 1990 and continues to attract hundreds of visitors (and locals) with their cameras every year.
In the years before it was made into Highway 99, Aurora Avenue was an ordinary residential street. Its last segment in Fremont is now underneath the Aurora Bridge. In the year 2005 the City of Seattle passed an ordinance to rename this two-block segment of Aurora between North 34th to 36th Streets “Troll Avenue” to help people find the Troll artwork at the intersection of North 36th Street.
Fremont Public Art: The Fremont Guidepost
Located just north of downtown Seattle beside sparkling Lake Union, the neighborhood of Fremont is known for its geographic centrality.
Since the 1960s Fremont has been known for its quirkiness, when an economic lull drove down rents and attracted more artists and students to the area. Although the local economy has improved since the arrival of several high-tech companies, the funky and eclectic vibe of Fremont has continued.
According to the Fremont Chamber of Commerce and “Fremont Scientists,” this “strangeness” exists because of an “odd gravitational pull” that places Fremont at the Center of the Universe. Here, a unique geophysical force also creates an overwhelming urge “to return again and again.”
Reasoning that Fremont’s “center of the universe” location could “neither be proven nor disproven,” residents set up a helpful “Center of the Universe” guidepost at Fremont Avenue and North 35th Street in the early 1970s. In 1994, this location was officially proclaimed the Center of the Universe by the Metropolitan King County Council.
Here’s more about how the Fremont neighborhood in Seattle became known as the Center of the Universe.
Fremont Public Art: Late for the Interurban
East of the Fremont Bridge on North 34th Street, near Adobe Plaza, Seattle’s favorite clown, JP Patches, and his friend, Gertrude, are forever “Late for the Interurban” in these bronze statues created by Washington sculptor Kevin Pettelle. The Interurban was the train to Everett with its transfer point by the Fremont Bridge, referenced by the Interurban statue there.
Installed in 2008 to commemorate the 50th anniversary of the J.P. Patches TV show, and viewable through a bronze “television” also created by the artist, the Late for the Interurban statues were funded primarily through donations from local fans who grew up watching the show.
Fremont Public Art: Waiting for the Interurban
In 1978, a down year economically for the Fremont neighborhood, artist and local resident Richard Beyer was tasked with creating a “community focal point” in honor of Fremont’s centennial.
Known for his humorous and humanistic style, Beyer sculpted from rough aluminum six life-size figures and a dog with a human face and placed them at the site of the former station for the “Interurban,” the Seattle to Everett trolley line with a stop in Fremont that had greatly contributed to Fremont’s early growth and prosperity — and that had stopped running almost 40 years previous, in 1939.
At Waiting for the Interurban, the figures stand under a pergola designed by Peter Larsen from Environmental Works. Installed in 1979, it mirrors the roofline slant of the original train station.
Over the years, Waiting for the Interurban has become both a popular tourist attraction and a favorite spot for locals to publicize events or celebrate holidays with signage or decorations draped over the figures.
The Fremont Neighborhood in Seattle is Founded in 1888
Each neighborhood of Seattle proudly waves the banner of its unique name, and yet many were named in a similar way: by real estate investors. Fremont in Seattle was also named by real estate investors. What made the Seattle neighborhood called Fremont stand out from others, was its good location, its jump-start after Seattle’s Great Fire of 1889, and its vigorous developers who utilized the growing streetcar system to advantage.
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