I went to MSU’s campus for the first time in years today, and rambled around once-familiar places that now feel like somewhere remembered from a dream. Outside the Auditorium Road approach to my old haunt, South Kedzie Hall, I found this stamp.
I presume the TCI behind this is the one from Eaton Rapids, Michigan. Google reviews suggest it went out of business within the last couple of years.
Sidewalk-adjacent news: they have started clearing trees away for the “Michigan Avenue Rehabilitation” project, which is supposed to improve the Michigan Avenue corridor from Pennsylvania to 127 – in other words, the length of the east side – for pedestrians and bicyclists.
Fans of the blog know I’m inclined toward anything that improves sidewalks. I’m also in favor of bicycle lanes, especially when they mean cyclists won’t be risking collisions with pedestrians on the sidewalk. I get why they ride on the sidewalk, and when I rode my bike I would ride on the sidewalk on Michigan too since the alternative is worse, but I’d still rather not have them scare me by blowing past my shoulder inches away (often without warning as they should).
The trouble is that I’m also generally opposed to anything that involves removing mature trees. The honey locust trees on this stretch are pretty, making for nice shade and pleasant colors. They stand in dedicated little holes in the sidewalk that I’ve always found a bit fascinating. According to the official phasing map, the city is going to replace them one to one – actually better than one to one in some blocks – but a tree that has already had decades to grow is always better than a new planting. I wish they had tried harder to work around them, at least keeping the ones that could be kept.
They have started to replace the sidewalks that were removed during the recent gas pipeline project on East Kalamazoo Street. This one is near the southeast corner of Kalamazoo and Magnolia. Someday some new resident of the neighborhood will wonder what happened in 2023-24 that so many sidewalks are embossed with those years, just as I once was with Cantu & Sons 1987-88.
At first I thought this one was just plain illegible, but after studying my photo at home, I realized it is probably McClain. I have done them before, and their other stamps have also tended to be blurry. The date is hopeless.
It’s in front of Edge Partnerships, a PR firm, on the north side of East Kalamazoo Street between Grand and Washington. This building was formerly home to longtime business Wolverine Typewriter. I am not sure when they first opened and finally closed, but as they were in this location from at least 1949-2001, their employees probably saw this sidewalk laid.
I walked downtown along East Kalamazoo Street to check out the going out of business sale at venerable jeweler Linn & Owen. I didn’t buy anything, but I did see this F & M stamp and, in the distance beyond, the ghost sign advertising three locations of Beaner’s. Today Beaner’s is known as Biggby and only one of these three locations is extant, the one on Allegan.
There isn’t much else to say about this stamp, besides that it’s on the north side of East Kalamazoo Street, east of South Grand Avenue, in front of the Michigan DHHS’s South Grand building.
I have a silly (and unfortunately blurry) one for you today. Eastlund Concrete stamps are ubiquitous in the neighborhood, but apparently they failed to get a new date stamp for 2023. The 2 has been rubbed out and replaced with a handwritten 3.
This one is on the west side of North Clemens Avenue between Fernwood and Saginaw, in front of a cute little house that looks like it got some new walk at the same time as a revamped front walk.
I have previously written about Lansing-based construction company Christman. This stamp is found on the north side of West Washtenaw Street between Walnut and Pine – outside Constitution Hall – and what makes it interesting is two things. First, both of the sets of Christman stamps I’d found before were in the greater Frandor metropolitan area and had dates in the 1950s or 60s.
Second, “constructors”? I guess they wanted to set themselves apart from all the boring contractors who go with the tried and true “construction” in their name.
My apologies for disappearing last week (if anyone noticed). It’s gotten warm enough to see the sidewalks again so here’s a fairly uneventful curiosity I noticed over in the Midway subdivision: two Able Concrete stamps, done the same year, but in two different styles.
The semicircular one is on the house’s driveway, and the plain one is on the front walk. I have to guess they were done on two different occasions, because the alternative is that they brought two different stamps with them just for variety’s sake. As fun as that idea is, it doesn’t seem likely.
This is on the north side of Lasalle Gardens between Kipling and Midvale.
… the time of year when the sidewalks are hidden by snow. I’m afraid that means I have nothing for the blog this week.
It came a lot later than normal this year, but we did finally get our first big snow of the winter. I’d had plans to photograph a particular stamp for the blog; it’s one that I thought the light was too unfavorable for on a previous walk. Unfortunately I didn’t get back there soon enough and now it’ll be buried for a bit. Maybe next week.
I assume this is graffiti, though the name/date format and the placement almost suggests a handwritten contractor marking. But, for Little Christmas, please enjoy the well-lit house I found it in front of. It’s on the west side of North Hayford Avenue between Fernwood and Saginaw.
