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NORTHWEST HISTORIAN HEARD ON SEATTLE'S MORNING NEWS

Feliks Banel

Detail from a 1920 street map is annotated to show where tiled street names were installed on sidewalks in 1904. (Map is public domain; annotated by KIRO Newsradio)

Another image shared by KIRO Newsradio listener Greg Schlosser, showing more samples of tiled street names along Madison Street in Seattle. (Courtesy Greg Schlosser)

The street grid changed in 1961, and some streets which had a "NORTH" suffix were changed to "EAST." (Courtesy Greg Schlosser)

Some of the tiled street names include backward or upside-down characters. (Courtesy Susanna Ryan)

The street name tile at East Galer Street. (Feliks Banel/KIRO Newsradio)

Author Susanna Ryan solved the mystery of the origins of street names rendered in tile in the sidewalks along Madison Street. (Feliks Banel/KIRO Newsradio)

Mystery and tragedy of Seattle’s old tile street markers