Street Naming Honors Longtime Seattle Opera Leader Speight Jenkins

The City of Seattle has named a street in honor of Speight Jenkins, General Director of Seattle Opera from 1983 to 2014.

"Speight Jenkins Way" is a one-way stretch of Fourth Avenue North, running between Republican Street and Mercer Street at the northeast corner of Seattle Center. Street signs at both corners honor Jenkins, the visionary arts leader who helped Seattle Opera achieve international acclaim and played a guiding role in the creation of nearby McCaw Hall.

Seattle City Councilmember Tom Rasmussen sponsored this honorary street name designation, which was approved unanimously by the council in December. Rasmussen spoke on behalf of the City Council: "The City is grateful for Speight's devotion to Seattle Opera and to advancing opera as a welcoming art form for all. This honorary street designation will help ensure his legacy is remembered for generations to come."

A legend in the world of opera, Speight (pronounced to rhyme with "eight") Jenkins retired last summer after three decades of devotion to Seattle Opera, where he presented more than 1,200 individual performances of 92 opera productions. Since then he has taught a class on opera at Stanford University, been made a Chevalier in the Order of Arts and Letters by the government of France, and won a lifetime achievement prize at the International Opera Awards in London.

Seattle Opera is a leading opera company, recognized both in the United States and around the world. The company is committed to advancing the cultural life in the Pacific Northwest with performances of the highest caliber, and through innovative education and community programs that take opera far beyond the McCaw Hall stage. Each year, more than 95,000 people attend Seattle Opera performances and the company's programs serve more than 65,000 people of all ages. Seattle Opera is especially known for its acclaimed works in the Richard Wagner canon, and has created an "international attraction" in its presentation of Wagner's epic Ring, according to The New York Times.