15 Best Monuments in Seattle

The Bruce Lee and Brandon Lee Grave Sites form a peaceful memorial destination within Seattle’s Lake View Cemetery. Set among a carefully maintained landscape of trees and shrubs, the graves offer a quiet place to pay respects to the martial arts and film legends and to reflect on their enduring influence.

The Bainbridge Island Japanese American Exclusion Memorial is a contemplative historical landmark honoring the Japanese Americans forcibly removed from the West Coast during World War II, with particular focus on Bainbridge Island’s community. Its Memorial Wall follows the route toward the historic Eagledale ferry landing, where the first removals began.

St. Rat Mosaic is a small Seattle shrine and public-art installation at Cal Anderson Park, built from vivid glass, cement and community imagination. The work includes Hot Rat Mother and Saint Crow overlooking the reflection pool, with a playful devotional spirit that gives the piece its unmistakable personality.

International Fountain is a Seattle Center landmark designed around a broad circular basin, a silver dome and a playful spray of water jets. The design traces back to the 1962 World’s Fair and was shaped to evoke outer-space exploration, giving the fountain an architectural character that goes beyond a typical park feature.

Smith Tower is a Seattle historical landmark where architecture, city history and elevated views come together. The 1914 skyscraper retains vintage elevators and art deco interiors, while its observation experience adds a memorable perspective on Seattle without feeling quite as overwhelming as the city’s busiest viewpoints.

Kurt Cobain Memorial Bench sits in Seattle’s Viretta Park as an informal place of remembrance near the home associated with the Nirvana musician. The bench and its surroundings carry flowers, handwritten letters, lyrics, carved tributes and other small mementos left by visitors over time.

Statue of Liberty Plaza is a small but distinctive Seattle landmark along Alki, where a replica Statue of Liberty connects the waterfront with the story of West Seattle’s early settlement. The setting brings open-water views and, on clear days, striking mountain scenery.

Memorial To Fallen Firefighters is a Seattle tribute in Occidental Square honoring firefighters who have died in the line of duty since the department’s beginning. Inspired by four firefighters lost in a 1995 warehouse fire, the memorial uses life-sized figures and granite slabs shaped to suggest a collapsed building.

The Fremont Troll is one of Seattle’s most distinctive pieces of public art: a giant concrete sculpture crouched beneath the Aurora Bridge, clutching a real Volkswagen Beetle. Its scale, oddball humor and under-bridge setting make the stop instantly recognizable and particularly rewarding for photographs.

Giant Sequoia is a Seattle tourist attraction featuring an unusually large sequoia growing outside California. Set in a scenic park beside Lake Washington, the tree creates a memorable contrast with the surrounding urban landscape and offers an easy stop for visitors interested in remarkable trees.

The Jimi Hendrix Statue is a compact Seattle tribute set directly along a Capitol Hill sidewalk. Its lifelike rendering shows Hendrix with his guitar and captures the musician’s presence in a way that makes the stop especially rewarding for fans of music history and local artistic work.

The Statue of George Washington stands on the University of Washington campus in Seattle, near Odegaard Library and close to Suzallo Library. Created by French sculptor Jean-Antoine Houdon from life-based measurements, it is regarded as an unusually accurate likeness of the first U.S. president.

The Birthplace of Seattle Monument stands near Alki Beach as an obelisk connected with the Denny Party landing of November 13, 1851. Its inscriptions present an early-settlement account of Seattle, while also briefly referencing Chief Seattle and the Duwamish people.

A Salish Welcome is a Seattle monument centered on a distinctive sculpture depicting a figure holding a large dish with salmon and fish eggs. Its detailed patterns and compact scale make it easy to notice while walking or driving near NW 54th Street and the locks. The setting is quiet and suited to a brief, reflective stop, with views shaped by the surrounding trees and riverbank.

The Statue of Lenin is one of Seattle’s most unusual public monuments, standing prominently in Fremont. The large bronze figure comes with a concise historical plaque and an intriguing story of how the sculpture traveled from Eastern Europe to the Pacific Northwest.