There are three Moore Trosper stamps on the east side of North Fairview Avenue just north of Michigan. This is a different, in my view nicer, design than other Moore Trosper stamps I have catalogued so far. The name is rendered without a hyphen this time; they are inconsistent about that.
This is the southernmost stamp, which does not appear to be paired.
The above-pictured stamp is visible in this photo, bottom center.
The stamps are alongside the Arcadia Smokehouse, which I remember best for the period it spent as a vacant former PNC Bank whose parking lot people would sometimes use when the lot behind The Avenue filled up. A brief dive into old Lansing State Journal advertisements shows that the 1954 building spent a long time belonging to Bud Kouts, though as it is not adjacent to the main Bud Kouts (now Feldman) Chevrolet, it’s hard to picture how that worked.
There are three stamps in this stretch; one is a singleton and the other two appear to bracket a run of pavement.
The middle stamp of the three. It seems to mark the south end of a run of pavement.
I promised myself I would not stop and look at any interesting stamps tonight because it was already late and I did not have time to go chasing down old newspaper clippings like last night. Unlike last night, this time I was successful reining myself in on my late walk, though I did twice stop and start to go back to look at a stamp, only to immediately turn again, reminding myself I wasn’t going to do that.
So here’s the most boring, dirt-common stamp I could find. Well, no, I tell a lie. It isn’t a Cantu & Sons 1987 stamp. Call it one step more interesting than that, then. It’s an undated O & M stamp, on the west side of North Magnolia Avenue between Michigan and Vine.
This could be any one of a thousand of these, so you’ll have to take my word for it that I didn’t just repeat a past photo.
I just wonder why the city’s Operations and Maintenance division spent so long failing to date their stamps, when it’s required in the city code. It’s odd for the city itself to be such a scofflaw.
The stamp is on the far end of the closest slab shown here, though it’s hard to see because it’s so dark. But at least you can see the neighbor’s giant inflatable Christmas unicorn.
I was planning to do something easy today, but I stumbled across this on the west side of Custer Avenue between Jerome and Vine, and was so excited I had to get it immediately. I recognized the name of the Lansing Artificial Stone Company as among the earliest sidewalk contractors in Lansing. It has come up a few times in my research on other stamps.
I knew right away to stop and gawk at this one; the typeface and arched design screamed “old.” I just wish I knew how old.
I have found a few interesting, if disconnected, tidbits about the Lansing Artificial Stone Company. By 1912 they were located at 323 East Michigan Avenue. Today the Lansing Center covers that block. The 1902 Lansing Journal “Twentieth Century Edition” has a history of the early builders of Lansing which writes in very glowing tones of the company:
Within the last decade the making of artificial stone has progressed to a degree of excellence that has far surpassed previous expectations. The inventions and improvements in that line of work by the Lansing Artificial Stone Co. have been the main cause of this change, and their product is regarded everywhere as being of a superior quality as regards both beauty and durability.
The Lansing Journal Twentieth Century Edition
It goes on to say that “ninety percent of all brick buildings in Lansing are trimmed with this company’s artificial stone.”
According to the Annual Report of the Board of State Auditors for the State of Michigan for the Year Ending June 30, 1904, in 1903 Lansing Artificial Stone submitted the winning bid for installing sidewalk over a boiler room on the north side of the Capitol. They also submitted an unsuccessful bid for installing sidewalk on several downtown streets (which the City of Lansing had declared to be “a public necessity”).
Looking north on Custer Avenue. Sorry for having to take this one in the dark, but at least you can see some Christmas lights.
Lansing Artificial Stone seems to have had a wide influence. A Michigan Agricultural College student-published newspaper (I would go so far as to call it a zine), the Eagle, stated (in the first issue, dated February 10, 1892) that “The Lansing artificial stone company [sic] have established works at Rogers Park North Chicago and contracts are coming in too fast for the capacity of the works.” The Philadelphia Buildings and Architects site’s entry on R.C. Ballinger & Co. reports, “In the Philadelphia Real Estate Record and Builders Guide for 3 October 1894 R. C. Ballinger & Co. announces that it has organized to manufacture Lansing Artificial Stone in Philadelphia, apparently a reference to an early form of permastone.” Lansing Artificial Stone seems to have become a trade name; was it licensed or franchised somehow?
I wish very much that this stamp had a date. It could potentially be the oldest one I’ve found. Then again, it seems that the company was still in business at least as late as 1915.
I was in Old Town for Christmas shopping today and took a quick shot of an unfamiliar contractor’s stamp in front of Pleats Interior Design, on the north side of East Cesar E. Chavez Avenue (Historic Grand River) between Turner and Center. I can find some residual directory listings for Dan’s Concrete which suggest it was based on Harris Street in Lansing’s north side, but it doesn’t seem to be in business now and I can’t find out anything about it.
Everything in Old Town is now a gallery, a boutique, or a tattoo parlor, but in times past it was more down to earth. The nice-looking brick storefront occupied by Pleats seems to have been a grocery store called Affeldt’s (“Ask your neighbor – she knows!”) in the 1930s, then Rulison and Sons Supply Company (“We Do HEMSTITCHING”) in the 1940s and 50s. In the 1980s it was home to Minor Creations, a lingerie manufacturer. A January 10, 1993 classified ad sought an industrial cutter for a garment factory, able to lift heavy bolts of cloth; no company name was given, but I assume it was still Minor Creations. To my surprise, Minor Creations (warning: not entirely SFW) still exists and is now based in Okemos. They seem to now call themselves a dancewear rather than lingerie manufacturer. And, times being what they are, they also sell masks to match your tiger striped sexy garb.
Sorry, you can no longer go in and watch lingerie being made, but they would probably sell you some very sexy throw pillows.
As foreshadowed in my recent entry about Regent Place apartments, I returned to the vicinity to take a picture in front of Regent Place’s next door neighbor, the Regent Arms apartments. This is on the east side of Regent between Michigan and Kalamazoo (100 block).
The southern stamp.
The stamp is a C. Gossett stamp from 1962. Actually, there are a pair of them, framing a short run of sidewalk (which is interrupted by a later Cantu & Sons stamp in the middle).
Looking north, with the southern stamp closest to the camera. The light colored block two away is a later Cantu & Sons stamp; the northern stamp is past that.
This stamp pre-dates the Regent Arms, which was built in 1966, in case that isn’t obvious from looking at it. When I first lived here, it was painted dark brown and had a weathered sign with its name on the front. Later it got its current paint job, which coordinates it with Regent Place but, I think, suits it less. I think that is also when it lost its identity as “Regent Arms” and just got its street address on the front instead. The landlord’s Web site still uses the Regent Arms name. I’m not likely to stop.
The northern stamp.
I do know what was here when this pavement was stamped. A while back I downloaded a set of real estate cards from the 1950s and 60s for properties on Regent Street, part of the digitized local history collection of the Capital Area District Library. While trying to figure out what house had previously been on the Regent Place site (it turns out no house was ever located there), I discovered the card for a house on the site of the Regent Arms. It was an American Foursquare house, very typical of the east side. The owner was one Ruth Clippert whose reason for selling was “doesn’t need.” The house was vacant. From this I infer that it was an investment property.
(Update half an hour later: I have discovered something that leads me to retract the “investment property” theory. That is this clipping from the Lansing State Journal of January 23, 1941, reporting on a wedding reception held at the home of “Mrs. Martin Clippert” – the address given is the one for Ruth Clippert in the real estate card. Was Mrs. Martin Ruth, or a relative? Either way it seems this was someone selling a family home.)
The neatly typed card has a handwritten addendum written crosswise over it: “Sold 1-5-65.” That was probably the sale to whomever demolished it to build the Regent Arms, as according to the landlord’s Web site, the apartment building “was designed by Architect Howard DeWolf in 1965 and built in 1966.”
The boldly modernist hulk of the Regent Arms. On the right side, the building hangs preciously over empty space, allowing for parking underneath. This allows the building to come impressively close to the boundary of the lot.
This is a different (and nicer, in my view) version of J.A. Iszler’s stamp than I posted the other day. It is on the north side of East Michigan Avenue between Clemens and Fairview, in front of Toarmina’s Pizza.
Toarmina’s wasn’t there yet in 2004. Instead, this storefront was currently home to Lopez Bakery, the business I still associate it most with. Lopez was a combination Mexican bakery and coffee bar (I think the coffee bar may have been a separate business that shared space with them). They moved in sometime during my early years in Lansing (I moved here in 1999) and closed in 2007. I never got baked goods from there, but I remember that they also shared the location with a coffee bar and I think I got coffee from there once or twice.
I don’t know what was originally in this storefront, but an advertisement in the December 17, 1926, Lansing State Journal gives it as the address of Universal Grocery. They were advertising a moving sale as they were moving to 1220 East Grand River (which has more recently been various party stores and a City Pulse Eyesore of the Week) in what is now called Old Town. I’m if they were the original occupant of the Toarmina’s address or not. The business appears to have become a dry cleaner in the 1930s and ’40s.
The stamp (there is only one, no twin this time) in context, looking west on East Michigan.
I ran out of time to seek out a more interesting stamp as it’s crunch time at work, so I thought I would just throw up this Able stamp with apologies. But then I figured I should at least give you a few details about the building it’s in front of. Whoops; went and ate up a bunch of time by discovering something interesting, again. First things first: here’s the pair of stamps, on the east side of Regent Street between Michigan and Kalamazoo (the 100 block).
The northern stamp.
The southern stamp, a few blocks away.
The stamps are in front of the Regent Place Apartments, a small apartment building that is the northernmost property on the east side of Regent. I have walked past these apartments countless times, starting back when I used to walk to the bus stop all the time to get to work. They were harder to date than the aggressively 1960s apartment block next door (about which more in a later entry, I’m sure). I went to the city’s property records to see when they were built. I had a bit of a shock.
Regent Place Apartments.
These apartments, which in my mind have just “always been here,” were built in 1999. The same year I moved to town (and the same year as these stamps, which is probably not a coincidence). I could hardly imagine the street without them. I began searching the Lansing State Journal records to see what was there before and came up with nothing. Searching an address usually yields at least something: old wedding announcements, for instance, or previous businesses. I could not find anything earlier for this address than some classified advertisements from April 1999 promising “BRAND NEW!” units. Evidently, Regent Place Apartments arrived in Lansing only a few months before I did. I was startled by this revelation.
The northern stamp in context.
When I could not find anything else about this address on Regent Street, I began to suspect that the previous house or houses on this lot were numbered something different, and began trying a few guesses, also unsuccessfully. I could have saved myself a lot time if I had found the landlord’s Web site sooner. It turns out they have a short history of the property and according to their research, no house was ever on the lot. Prior to the construction of Regent Place, it was a parking lot for the apartments next door. It also served as overflow parking for the Pagoda restaurant. And, it says, “According to legend a Mr. Parsons who owned the business at the corner of Regent and Michigan in the early 1970s used to land his helicopter, with some difficulty on this site.” I’m not sure what business that would be. I assume it refers to the east corner, which was an A&P for a long time and as late as the 1960s, but that seems to have gone away before the 1970s.
This stamp is on the east side of Marshall Street just north of Michigan Avenue, next to Mid-Michigan Kidney Specialists. J. A. Iszler is probably John A. Iszler Concrete Contractor, located on West Grand River Highway in Grand Ledge.
The southern stamp of a pair.The northern stamp.
According to Iszler’s Web site, they are a family-owned business started in 1977.
Looking south from the northern stamp. (It’s next to the spray painted marking.)
As sometimes happens, I had already photographed something else (something on my “to do list”) when I stumbled across this one later on my walk. I decided to bump the other one to another time. This one is on the south side of Vine Street between Fairview and Clemens.
I am quite sure this one is from the 1920s and fairly confident the date is 1926. I thought at first that the contractor’s name was totally illegible, but upon studying the photograph I think I see “E Schullberger.” Searching the Lansing State Journal for that name gets me nothing, so I could very well be wrong. I would welcome alternate suggestions to research. Update 5/9/21: I now believe this to be E. Schneeberger.
Looking west on Vine Street. That’s Clemens in the distance.
Here’s a nice, old Department of Public Works stamp on the east side of Horton just north of Michigan, next to the Gabriels Community Credit Union on the corner. I had meant to get this one for ages and finally decided to do it tonight despite it being after dark.
I brought a flashlight with me and propped it up on some gravel alongside the sidewalk. (Flashing a light straight on the stamp usually makes it illegible. You need shadows.) I know from seeing it in daylight that the year is 1919. I had previously been complete unable to read the month, but when I came home and looked at the photo this time I realized I was pretty sure I saw September there. It’s funny how sometimes a photo can see things I don’t see with my eyes.
Looking south on Horton. That’s the Gabriels Community Credit Union on the left. You can see the flashlight I was using to illuminate the stamp on the lower left.
