New street signs reading “Bruce Lee Way” now mark South King Street between 6th Avenue South and Maynard Avenue South in Seattle's Chinatown-International District, honoring the martial arts icon who once called the neighborhood home. The honorary designation celebrates Bruce Lee's lasting ties to Seattle, where he arrived as a teenager and launched the path that made him a global legend.
The signs follow a sequence of civic action this fall. According to KING 5, the city honored Lee with the new signage in the Chinatown-International District. Councilmember Eddie Lin sponsored the street designation.
But getting the physical signs manufactured and installed took more than a council vote. Jun Fan Gung Fu Academy instructor Abe Santos is associated with the academy, which has a fundraising effort for the signs seeking $6,500. The academy traces its lineage directly to Taky Kimura, Lee's best friend and highest-ranked student.
A Teenager Who Became a Legend
Bruce Lee returned to the United States as a teenager, according to MyNorthwest.
The new street signs join a growing list of civic tributes to Lee that have rolled out across Seattle this year. In February, the United States Postal Service held a public first-day-of-issue ceremony at the historic Nippon Kan Theater in the Chinatown-International District to unveil its nationwide Bruce Lee Forever stamp, as reported by MyNorthwest.
More Memorials on the Way
A $100,000 fundraising effort for a statue of Lee is underway, and volunteers are working with the city to finalize its location, according to the Northwest Asian Weekly. The effort adds another tribute to Lee in Seattle.
Not every recognition effort has succeeded, however. The Seattle Landmarks Preservation Board voted 6 to 3 in September 2024 to reject historical landmark designation for 4750 University Way, the building that housed Lee's first formal dojo, falling one vote short of the seven-vote threshold required for historic status. The outcome illustrates how, even as the city has embraced honorary signage, stamps and park statues, formal protections for Lee's physical training spaces have faced a harder path.
Where Fans Can Still Find Lee's Seattle
Some of the places Lee frequented remain open for business today. Tai Tung Restaurant, established in 1935 as Seattle's oldest operating Chinese restaurant, is where Lee sat at his favorite corner table and regularly dined on beef in oyster sauce without needing a menu, according to The Stranger. The restaurant sits just blocks from the new signage, giving visitors a tangible stop on any informal Bruce Lee tour of the neighborhood.
The restaurant and Bruce Lee Way offer visitors tangible stops connected to Lee's time in Seattle.
