Joseph pointed out, in a comment on my recent allegedly undated Minnis & Ewer “curb walk,” that it was not undated. The date was just very faint, surprisingly so in contrast to the very deep impression of the name. I made a point to walk past it again today during the late-afternoon sun that does such a good job bringing out previously illegible marks and it was very clearly dated “6-11”, June 1911.
I am led to wonder whether all the “undated” Minnis & Ewer stamps I have seen around town were originally dated and I either overlooked the date for being so much fainter than the name, or else it has just worn off for the same reason. I will have to revisit some of them and see what I can see.
Meanwhile, I was wrong to say this was the only “curb walk” on the street. There is another one almost but not quite across the street from it. I will cover that one in a future update.
Today I took my walk at one of the magic times of day that draw out hard-to-read stamps. This stamp, on the east side of the 400 block of Regent Street (between Elizabeth and Kalamazoo), was previously so worn as to be totally illegible and almost invisible to me. But this evening the low angle of the sun made it give up its date quite clearly: 1954.
No such luck with the name, I’m afraid. It plainly starts with a J and after a space I think the next letter is an H. Past that I’m lost. I like the layout, with the smaller letters of the name forming a curve over the large, relatively ornate year.
Update 4/2/21: Now that I’ve seen another one (elsewhere on Regent), I am pretty sure this is J. Wilson.
This rather rustic-looking stamp is on the south side of East Michigan Avenue between Clifford and Holmes (but much closer to Clifford – really between Clifford and Rosamond, if Rosamond were to extend up to Michigan). It is smaller in size than most stamps, and also faces sideways relative to traffic heading east-west along Michigan.
B & B Construction no longer appears to be in business, but I find that it was based in Holt during this time period, and also that it sponsored a men’s slow pitch softball team. As I’ve mentioned before, it seems like I turn up as many of these businesses on the sports page as anywhere else. The May 18, 1985 Lansing State Journal reported that B & B lost to Popeyes, 11-8. The last reference I see to a business that is probably the same B & B is in the May 18, 1998 LSJ classifieds: “We lay block, brick, do flatwork & pole barns. Free estimates, 20 yrs. exp.” (There is a B & B Concrete Placement in the Detroit area, but I assume that is a different business.)
Facing south toward the office.
This one is out in front of the offices of the Unity Spiritual Center church, one of those charming old house-turned-office buildings that pepper Michigan Avenue. The house was built in 1906.
This is a first for the blog, but one that I have been planning on dropping in eventually. This neat and clear Minnis & Ewer stamp looks like it could have been left there last week, but it could very well be over 100 years old, based on the age of the only dated Minnis & Ewer stamp I have found (1911). That in itself makes it interesting, but the real reason I am posting it is because it represents something I find curious and don’t yet understand, the existence of bits of pavement leading from the sidewalk to the curb. This one is on the 200 block of Regent Street, between Michigan and Kalamazoo, on the east side of the street.
I grew up calling the strip of lawn between the sidewalk and the curb “the extension” as that was what my parents called it. I still use it, but have come to realize no one else around me does. Google has let me know that this is because it is not just specific to Michigan but pretty well localized to Ann Arbor, where I grew up. It appears in the city code of a few towns in Michigan but only Ann Arborites actually seem to use it in conversation.
I don’t know what to call these bits of sidewalk that appear on extensions erratically around my neighborhood. I have used the keyword “curb walk” just so I can find this entry again later, but that’s something I just made up as a placeholder until I come up with something better.
I originally thought, when I saw a bit of pavement like this, that the owner must have had it installed so they had somewhere to set out their trash bin for collection without messing up the grass. On consideration this does not seem to entirely explain it, both because of how old this one likely is (though perhaps contemporary to the old house it’s in front of) and because on some streets they appear at regular intervals as though they were considered a functional part of the sidewalk when it was constructed. This is not one of those places and I believe this is the only one on the block. I rather wish I had one, especially if it had a cool old stamp like this. I would set a planter on it (but not on the stamp).
Update 10/11/20: Joseph has pointed out that there is a date on this one. I revisited it with better light and was able to see that it is dated “6-11” – June 1911.
Today’s stamp is on the east side of South Clemens Avenue between Kalamazoo and Elizabeth. Unfortunately, it’s mostly illegible, except for the date.
The name looks to me to start with the initial J., have a second initial which is possibly an H, and end with “Feister.” I’m very unsure about the F, but “-eister” I’m more confident about. Underneath it is another line seemingly starting with L and possibly consisting of three letters. And then the date, a relatively clear 1928.
The slab in context, looking south on Clemens. It is at the bottom of this photo.
I tried searching for a combination of “cement” or “concrete” and “Feister” in The Lansing State Journal with no luck.
Update 3/31/21: I bet this is actually Wm. Meister.
This is on the north side of Michigan between Fairview and Magnolia, out in front of the MetroPCS that looks like it used to be a rental car place (because it was, but more on that in a future entry). At some point, the sidewalk here was narrowed, leaving only half of this stamp behind. It looks like it was chopped off to make room for a garden or street tree, though all that’s here now is a weedy patch. I had to pull up a mat of encroaching plants to be able to see to the edge. I was rewarded by the discovery of part of a date which had been buried entirely.
I am pretty sure the letter that’s a bit hard to see here at the start is an r, so “-roleum Corp.” Petroleum, I guess, but I haven’t been able to figure out what petroleum business might also have installed sidewalks. The second line seems to be “-tion Div.” which I assume was Construction Division. The number definitely ends in 7, I can tell you that. Unfortunately the crucial number before that one is partly obliterated. What’s left suggests “2” to me.
The slab in context. Notice on the right how the surrounding sidewalk is wider.
I decided to take a walk through the Urbandale neighborhood on this lovely, warm, fall evening. Urbandale was long ago the site of a race track, which was sold to developers in the (nineteen-)teens and made into a neighborhood despite the fact that it is in the 100-year floodplain and has been subjected to damaging floods and evacuations. People have trouble getting insurance because of this and so a lot of houses were abandoned and became derelict. So many houses were torn down over the years that a good chunk of the neighborhood is now community gardens and small farms. The Land Bank is big on those. Anyway, here’s the sidewalk stamp of the day, located on the west side of South Magnolia Avenue between Marcus and the dead end (500 block).
I know, I know. “Another DPW stamp? Yawn.” But I am still trying to narrow down when they switched stamp styles. This one complicates things. It uses the style of the 1940s and later stamps, but I have a stamp logged from 1939 that uses the older-style “Department of Public Works” stamp. That one is quite worn and perhaps I misread the date, but I am pretty sure I have seen other 1930s stamps in this style. I will have to look for a clearer one to confirm.
Looking south on Magnolia. I believe I’m standing on the slab I photographed above. Note the several white colored slabs; those are all brand new ones from White Hawk.
Kind of a boring discovery, I know, but I’m intrigued by the mystery of the (possibly) overlapping dates for the two styles of stamps.
I walked a different route from usual which took me to the east side of South Clemens Avenue between Kalamazoo and Prospect, instead of the west side where I more often walk. And look what I found there.
So the oddly placed 1921 DPW stamp on Regent Street isn’t unique or a misfire after all. There are stamps from both before and after this one that are more conventionally placed. There is even another one from 1924. So my new hypothesis is that there was one particular foreman in the 1920s who liked it this way.
Too bad about the crack; it’s otherwise very clear. It also gives me my new latest date for DPW stamps marking the month as well as the year.
At least I think it’s 1941. That’s what it looks like in person. It’s an extremely worn DPW stamp (I recognize it by the shape and typography of the letters), located on the east side of Regent Street (200 block) between Kalamazoo and Michigan. Funny how unevenly they have worn, given that there are 1930s ones on the same block that are much more legible.
Tired of Regent Street stamps yet? I hope not, because you’re probably going to get more of them. How about Department of Public Works stamps? Same there; I want to see if I can figure out when they transitioned from one style of stamp to the next over the years.
Looking north on Regent.
The slab is a small one, odd sized. You run across truncated ones like this, both older and newer, and I’m not sure how they come about.
This stamp on the north side of Regent Street between Kalamazoo and Elizabeth (400 block) is, I believe, the newest one on the block. It appears that two slabs were done at the same time but only one was stamped. It’s another stamp using the same template as yesterday’s.
Bolle Contracting is, as the stamp says, based in Clare, a city that calls itself the “Gateway to the North.” I associate it with drives up to our rented cottage in Omena as a kid. When we got to Clare, I got excited because it started to feel like up north. Bolle’s Web site unfortunately does not give a company history. It says they offer excavating, demolition, and abatement.
Looking south on Regent Street.
Someone added a bit of graffiti, but only to the slab that had the contractor’s stamp. It’s as though they found the other one too pristine to mar.
