Jimi Hendrix commemorated in stunning new Seattle bus shelter display

In Jimi Hendrix’s classic tune ‘Spanish Castle Magic,’ he sings of a journey to the famed local club that took a half day on a dragonfly.

It turns out the dragonfly was actually a Metro bus. So it’s only fitting a newly unveiled bus shelter in the Central District honors Seattle’s greatest guitarist.

The shelter is at 23rd Avenue and Massachusetts Street in the heart of the neighborhood where Hendrix grew up. It’s nestled adjacent to the emerging Jimi Hendrix Park and Northwest African American Museum.

The shelter is just the latest addition to King County’s bus shelter program, which beautifies select shelters with murals or photography to reduce vandalism and graffiti and make them a part of the neighborhood.

Janie Hendrix, Jimi’s sister and CEO/President of Experience Hendrix, says her organization offered to design and provide the artwork for the new shelter as a gift to the neighborhood and to honor Jimi’s legacy there.

The collage, designed by longtime Experience Hendrix graphic artist Steven Pesant, features rare images taken from the Hendrix family collection and Experience Music Project spanning Jimi’s life from childhood to his adult years.

“The design that we came up with really shows the journey of Jimi’s life from beginning to end. And it’s very colorful and reflective of who he was as an artist and his iconic fashion,” says Janie.

Janie hopes the shelter will inspire others to pursue their own dreams, just as Jimi did so many years ago.