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The City Code on Marking

Since starting this blog, to my own surprise, I have not missed a single day of posting a new sidewalk stamp. I have a rule that I can only post a stamp I photographed that very day, most often on my daily walk. Thus my blogging and my daily walking habits reinforce each other. Today, however, I will have to have my first off day, as I am going in for surgery and probably will not be in a condition to walk afterward. In fact, I am not sure when I will be able to resume.

So today let me show you something I have saved for just such an occasion: the City of Lansing Municipal Code on sidewalk markings. Early on I had wondered whether contractors mark sidewalks out of some kind of legal obligation, or whether it is just advertising. It turns out it is the former (and probably has the latter as a bonus). Under 1024.10 (d), “Marking,” it states:

Marking. Any person constructing sidewalks or approaches in any right-of-way shall mark each walk or approach with his or her name and with the year in which such walk or approach is built. Letters and figures used in marking shall be not less than one and one-half inches in height and shall be placed in such position on such walk or approach as the Director of Public Service may specify.

City of Lansing Municipal Code, 1024.10 (d)

So all those undated markings? Or worse, the obviously new slabs with no markings at all? Scofflaws.

Also, I wonder if “approach” is what I have been calling a “curb walk.”

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N. Clemens Ave., DPW, August 1924

I’m sorry the flash washed this out a bit because it really is a beautifully-preserved stamp, especially the date, from when they still stamped a month. It is on the west side of North Clemens Avenue between Fernwood and Vine.

The block itself is a bit cracked due to having been heaved up, but not too bad.

Looking south on North Clemens.
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E. Michigan Ave., LPW (?), 1983

Here’s a puzzling one. I wish I had more time to poke at it tonight, but I’m an hour from bedtime and two hours from being done with my paying work. I was walking east on the north side of East Michigan Avenue between Ferguson and Custer, and ran across what looked like a dated-but-unsigned stamp. Of course, I knew that it surely originally had a name on it, but it was strange for the date to still be clear and the name to be completely gone. I bent down to look closely and could not make out the slightest impression in the blank part of the oval.

The western stamp.

I walked a short distance further east and found the paired stamp facing the other direction. This time I could make out letters, but they raised further questions.

The eastern stamp.

It looks to read “L.P.W.” The L is pretty difficult to read and I’m willing to consider that I may be wrong on that, but the P and W are distinct. Lansing Public Works? It seems likely, though they were stamping “Lansing DPW” at least through part of the 1940s. That’s not the puzzling part, though. The puzzling part is that I just recently discovered a Lansing DPS stamp from 1950 and had inferred that the Department of Public Works had become the Department of Public Service around that time. (Today it is the Public Service Department.)

Looking east on East Michigan Avenue. The “unsigned” stamp is at the bottom.

Adding further intrigue to this is the fact that I have found an item in the Lansing State Journal Community Digest of July 2, 1993, advising citizens that the Lansing Department of Public Works was offering phone book recycling.

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Regent St., L. Miller, 1963

This very worn and craggy stamp is on the east side of Regent Street between Kalamazoo and Elizabeth (500 block). I read it as L. Miller, 1963. It looks handwritten, and could almost be taken as graffiti, but I lean away from that interpretation because the the placement and name/date format is standard for contractor stamps.

I can find evidence of a contractor and builder named Lloyd Miller in some mid-1950s Lansing State Journal classifieds pages. Miller was based in East Lansing. There also seems to have been a Lloyd Miller real estate agency during the same time period, so it seems like ol’ Lloyd would build you a house or sell you one. My guess is that this is Lloyd Miller’s mark.

Looking north on Regent, with the stamp at the very bottom here.
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N. Magnolia Ave., DPS, 1950

Oho! Now what do we have here? A DPW variation I haven’t seen before – sort of. It’s on the west side of North Magnolia Avenue just north of Michigan. The style is similar to the 1940s DPW stamps, but it says Lansing DPS instead. So, around 1950 Lansing apparently went from having a Department of Public Works to having a Department of Public Service. Today we have a Public Service Department, but the stamps specify O & M or Operations and Maintenance, one of the divisions of Public Service.

Looking south on North Magnolia, toward Michigan Avenue.
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Regent St., Henry Davis, 1955

On the east side of Regent Street between Kalamazoo and Elizabeth (500 block), this fading Henry Davis stamp sits quietly.

Looking north on Regent. I like that yard’s stone retaining wall. I’m always a bit envious of houses with raised yards and steps up. There’s something I like about that look.

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N. Hayford Ave., J.A. Johnson, 1960

Here’s a first so far: two stamps on the same slab, facing opposite directions. This is on the west side of North Hayford Avenue between Fernwood and Vine.

It’s difficult to read in the photo, but based on the several others on this block of Hayford (all 1960) I know that it says J.A. Johnson.

The other end of the above slab.

I didn’t notice any other doubled up stamps on this block, even though there are several other J.A. Johnson stamps. My guess is that their practice was to stamp the beginning and end of a run of sidewalk paving, and this was a solo block so they stamped both sides. It makes sense to me, anyway.

Looking north on Hayford.

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E. Kalamazoo St., BWL, undated

I would have thought that Board of Water and Light (BWL) stamps would be common, but this is the only one I know of, so far. It is on the south side of East Kalamazoo Street between Lathrop and Allen, in front of a vacant lot. The lot used to have a cute little Craftsman house until it was gutted by fire several years ago.

It has a somewhat unusual lower corner placement.
I like the rounded lettering style.
Looking west on Kalamazoo.
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S. Clemens Ave., Ken Roberts, 1980

This stamp (and a second one a short distance away, probably the other end of a run of sidewalk replacement) is on the east side of South Clemens Avenue south of Michigan. It’s next to the parking lot behind the infamous Venue at East Town. I know the date is hard to read in this night photo, but I inspected it closely with my flashlight and it is 1980.

According to Open Corporates, the Ken Roberts Construction Co. of DeWitt incorporated in 1965 and dissolved in 1989. Its practical end probably actually came a bit earlier than that. A large classified advertisement in the June 27, 1982, Lansing State Journal heralds an upcoming auction of heavy machinery, concrete equipment, and miscellaneous items “too numerous to mention” from the Ken Roberts Construction Company. It certainly looks like a liquidation auction.

Looking southeast toward the parking lot.

From the above advertisement I also learned that there used to be an airport outside East Lansing, since it gives the auction site as “across the street from Davis Airport.” I had to look up where the heck Davis Airport was and I learned to my surprise that it was still extent (though in a very diminished form) as late as 2000 and is now buried under the gigantic student apartment complex known as Chandler Crossings.

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S. Magnolia Ave., O & M, undated

A typical undated O & M stamp on the east side of South Magnolia Avenue between Prospect and Kalamazoo. I wonder why they spent a good while not dating them.

It was a chilly night, and snowed earlier, so it wasn’t my most pleasant recent walk. I did enjoy seeing a few remaining Halloween decorations.

Looking south on South Magnolia. The stamp is facing the other way from me here, on the other end of the slab.