By Eric Brotman

What: Giant Pencil Icon

Location: 627 Dayton Street

Henry David Thoreau was praised for his skill in making them. Benjamin Franklin advertised their sale in his newspaper. John Steinbeck sometimes used dozens of them in a single day. And contemporary author David Rees recently wrote a book on the “artisanal craft of sharpening them.”

Edmonds has a representative of its own that pays homage to the pencil.

Pacific International Underwriters has hung a giant pencil icon above its entryway for more than 40 years, according to Randy Blanchard, current owner of the business.

The icon is just over five-and-a-half feet in length and nearly 10 inches in circumference.

Its colored plastic surface has held up well after four decades of exposure to Pacific Northwest weather.

A pencil image appears on the company’s website and is also seen above the following words on Blanchard’s business card:

 General Agents • Surplus Brokers

Lloyd’s, London, Correspondents

Although he has never learned why his predecessor conceived the logo concept and pencil design, Blanchard notes “the pencil has an arm’s length connection to an insurance term that references an extension of the underwriting authority and that reference is ‘having the pen.’ Why the pencil [was installed above the entryway] and not a pen is anybody’s guess. Maybe a pencil is more universal in design than a pen. Again, [that’s] just a guess.”

Coincidentally, the Edmonds Public Library, located just a half-block east of Pacific International Underwriters, is a place unusual in the computer age for having patrons who see and use pencils daily.