This is a pair of Department of Public Works stamps on the east side of South Clemens Avenue between Michigan and Prospect. There are a handful of them from 1930 on this stretch of Clemens.
S. Clemens Ave., DPW, 1930
Leslie St., S.C. Env., 2016
I went to do some more exploring of Urbandale today, and had some nice weather for it. These stamps are on the east side of Leslie Street between Elizabeth and the 496 dead end, in front of a vacant lot. (I’ve mentioned before that Urbandale has a lot of vacant lots.) I haven’t been able to figure out who “S.C. Env.” is, so if you know, please leave a comment.
The odd thing about this one is that it’s one long pour, without any separation of blocks. I haven’t seen that before.
Update 4/19/21: I figured out who SC Env. is!
S. Foster Ave., illegible name, 1969
This stamp is in front of Foster Garden, a community garden, on the east side of South Foster Avenue, south of Marcus. The date is clear enough; the name is illegible. It seems to end with -PA. The letter before that might be I, or might be part of something worn away.
Whenever the county doesn’t know what to do with a property that ends up in the Land Bank due to tax foreclosure, it says “um… tear the house down and build a community garden!” As a result there are a truly ridiculous number of community gardens on the east side, especially in the Urbandale neighborhood, and places where the houses are sparse.
For a couple of years in the 2000s, I want to say ’07-’08, I had a community garden plot in the Foster Garden. I would ride my bike there to tend tomatoes, herbs, and lettuce. It was exciting at first, and I even made a little sign declaring it the “[Lastname] Farm,” but eventually I got tired of having to scoop diminishing water from the provided rain barrels. I decided it was easier to stay home and tend my own garden, even though I can’t grow vegetables in it. (My yard is shaded in almost every part by trees.)
E. Michigan Ave., L [&] L, 2000
I’m surprised I haven’t done this one yet. It’s out in front of The Avenue, the bar where my pinball league met when there were pinball leagues, which is on the north side of Michigan at Fairview. Not sure why L & L is just “L L” this time, but I’m sure it’s them. There’s a lot of variety in their stamps.
I spent several hours in the emergency room today for what turned out to probably be food poisoning, and I still don’t feel too great, so this is going to be a short entry. I’m thinking to do a bit more research on this location later on.
For now, though, I’ll just note that in 2000 this was still Raupp Campfitter, the last remaining location of what had once been a small Michigan chain of camping supply stores. I never had reason to go there, but I get the impression that it was well loved by those who did have reason to go there. At this time of year, when the ivy has died back, you can still see the RAUPP letters over the rear entrance. It closed in 2004 and was replaced by a cybercafe called Girls Gone Wired, which rather quickly (fortunately) became just Gone Wired. My grad school buddy and I used to meet up there for “grading parties.” Eventually, under the same ownership, it evolved into The Avenue Cafe, which at first was a cafe by day and bar by night, and eventually just gave up on the last vestiges of the cafe aspect and became a straight up, evening-hours-only bar and live music venue. And, of course, the best pinball venue in Lansing.
Jones St., Minnis & Ewer, 1910
Welcome back to Capital City Sidewalks, or as it will soon be known, the Internet’s premier Verner D. Minnis fan site. Today I have for you a very hard-to-read 1910 Minnis & Ewer stamp from the west side of Jones Street between Prospect and Eureka. I walked out to this spot today specifically to get this one for today’s entry, only to find that it photographed quite poorly due to a glaze of slush that fell on it this morning and was in the process of freezing over. At first I thought I should wait until I get better conditions for a picture, but I wasn’t able to find anything else of interest that wasn’t similarly buried. Besides, I thought to myself, I’m pretty sure by now my readers all know what a Minnis & Ewer stamp looks like. It’s another one with an illegible month, though I was able to make the year legible by scraping the slush out with my bare finger. On est grand par l’amour, et plus grand par les pleurs…
You’ll notice the heavy sprinkling of evergreen needles decorating the stamp. They were contributed by this impressive tree, seen here as I approached the stamp from the north.
I suppose all the needles must get tiresome, but I am always rather envious of houses that have majestic evergreens shading their front yards. All my trees are plain old Norway maples, except for the small ornamental cherry the previous owner planted behind the garden pond.
Allen St., W.P. Bowerman, 1960s
I didn’t need foil after all, just different light. The stamp that had been illegible to me on a previous walk down Allen Street emerged on my walk this afternoon. Mostly, anyway; while I can tell the date is 1960s, I can’t read the last digit. This is on the east side of Allen Street on the block south of Elizabeth.
I found an obituary for Weldon P. Bowerman; he died in 2012 at the age of 90. According to the obituary, he owned and operated Bowerman Waterproofing for over 60 years and was a World War II veteran. Two of the commenters in the online guestbook speak admiringly of how well the basement work he did for them has held up, and how he dug out the basement walls by hand. His business seems to have been based in Potterville.
The 1960s were a time of transition for this neighborhood. It was the end of an era for Stabler Park, which today is an unremarkable sliver of land with a small play structure and a basketball court at the end of this block of Allen Street. (I think of it as the end of Allen Street, but Allen Street actually resumes six blocks south – just north of Potter Park – for one more lonely block.) Prior to the building of I-496, however, Stabler Park had been much larger. It was originally part of the Cameron Farm, which came to be owned by Christian E. Stabler, founder of the C.E. Stabler Coal Company. In 1930 he donated the land in honor of his son and two grandsons who had died in an accident. In the 1950s and 60s, Stabler Park hosted neighborhood carnivals, youth softball, and seasonal ice skating. In 1967, the state bought most of the park from the city to serve as right-of-way for I-496. According to the Lansing State Journal of October 31, 1967, the deed to the land had a clause which prohibited its use for anything other than a park, so the city had to pay off Stabler’s heirs to clear the title. The proceeds from the land’s sale were used to expand Hunter and Foster parks, which was given as a rationale for contradicting Stabler’s wishes. The moral of this and so many other stories like it is, never give land to a city and expect them to use it for what you intend. They will find some way to get around it.
Corrected 2/22/21: It was the city, not the state, that paid off Stabler’s heirs.
Jones St., Minnis & Ewer, July 1910
This stamp is on the west side of Jones Street between Prospect and Eureka. There are quite a few older stamps in the area south of Sparrow. I know this looks like just another case of “can’t pass up a Minnis & Ewer stamp,” but this one is different. See?
The month can be read, for a change (for some reason it’s often marred or too worn to read), but that’s not what’s odd here. What is up with the year? It appears to read “910.” All other dated Minnis & Ewer stamps I have found just render the date like “7 – 10” – never, that I’ve seen, including the first two digits of the year. That seems to rule out that it was “1910” and the “1” wore away. Besides, the rest of the numbers are clear enough, and there isn’t the slightest impression where a “1” would be. I just don’t know what’s going on here. Anyway, it’s almost certainly meant to indicate 1910, a very common date for Minnis & Ewer stamps in this neighborhood.
N. Fairview Ave., T.A. Forsberg, 1960
Finally I have a completely new one for you again. It’s on the west side of North Fairview Avenue between Jerome and Vine.
T.A. Forsberg, Inc. is a real estate development company based in Okemos. It was started by Terry “T.A.” Forsberg in 1950 and was originally a construction company specializing in roads and underground utilities. Terry Forsberg died in 2015. According to his obituary, Forsberg phased out of the construction business and into real estate development in the early 1990s. The current president of Forsberg is Brent Forsberg, Terry’s grandson.
S. Fairview Ave., Cantu & Sons, 1988
You’re probably thinking I’m about to say that due to the snow today and recently, I could only find this one stamp. But no: I probably saw at least a dozen stamps on my walk – not very many, but still enough for a reasonable selection, right?
Wrong. Every one I saw was a Cantu & Sons. And that’s really just how common they are, that a dozen random stamps on the east side have a good chance of all being theirs. Here’s one from the west side of South Fairview Avenue between Michigan and Prospect.
Bingham St., Minnis & Ewer, 1910
Good news! The wait is over and I am finally featuring the Minnis & Ewer stamp on the east side of Bingham Street between Eureka and Prospect that I teased back in January. You know, the one adjacent to the surprising-to-me 1927 DPW stamp. There’s nothing unusual about it, aside from being over 110 years old, but I will never pass up a Minnis & Ewer stamp.
The month is illegible, though with the snow brushed out it looks like a 6 or 8.
I took the establishing photo from further away than usual because I had to record something odd and a little funny. There is about a foot of completely uncleared sidewalk around the border between two houses, with cleared stretches on either side. I can understand there being a dispute about where the boundary is, but whoever cleared theirs second was being petty even by my standards. I want to know what history has led to this point.