Barb Luecke, Parade cofounder, does a little upkeep of our friend The Troll.

The Fremont Troll is everyone's favorite curmudgeon and public art destination. Located on N. 36th Street at Troll Avenue N., under the north end of the Aurora Bridge, The Troll is clutching an actual Volkswagen Beetle, as if he had just swiped it from the roadway above. Maybe he did.

Visitors are encouraged to climb up his shoulders or try to poke his hubcap eye. The Troll is 18 feet tall, weighs two tons, and is made of steel rebar, wire and concrete.

The enormous sculpture was commissioned by the Fremont Arts Council in 1989, under the leadership of parade co-founder Barbara Luecke, with the hope to build a greater sense of place in the neighborhood through art, and with it a stronger community. The Troll was sculpted in 1990 by four local artists: Steve Badanes, Will Martin, Donna Walter and Ross Whitehead with much help from the Fremont community. The artists have chosen to exercise their copyright to control commercial use of Troll images and need to be contacted directly for permission before any images are used commercially.

The Troll was selected in an open competition in which the community voted on proposals designed by four finalists. Time, money and in-kind donations were donated by the community, as well as a grant from the Seattle Neighborhood Matching Funds Program.

Troll plaque

The goal of the project was not to build a Troll, but to tie the two sides of Bridge Park together, create a focal point in the neighborhood where residents would want to visit repeatedly and bring family and friends, and to take advantage of the view corridor down the underside of the Aurora Bridge. The site had also become a refrigerator/mattress dumping ground, complete with rats, and the hope was to rehabilitate it with art.

The Troll has exceeded the Arts Council's original goals for the project, except that many people are so enamoured of the Troll they forget to turn around and look down the view corridor between the bridge arches.

The Fremont Arts Council maintains the sculpture and keeps light shining on him at night so he does not rise up and take a romp through the neighborhood causing mayhem.