Able Concrete and Cantu & Sons went in opposite directions: Able added “Concrete” to their stamp sometime between 1999 and 2004, while Cantu & Sons dropped it in 1987.
This stamp is on the south side of East Michigan Avenue between Magnolia and Hayford, in front of the McDaniels Insurance Agency.
This pleasantly old-fashioned little storefront was built in 1910. I don’t know for sure how long McDaniels has occupied the building, only that they don’t own it. Google Street View shows them moving in sometime between 2011 and 2015, preceded by Salon on Michigan. Based on city personal property tax records, I can see that other businesses that have occupied it include Afrikan Egyptian Bazaar (seemingly in the late 90s to early 2000s, though I don’t remember it at all) and some rando named Virgil Bernero. I’m just kidding, Virg, I voted for you. Based on the dates, he must have used it as his campaign office for the 2005 election.
Earlier today I was talking to my mom on the phone and mentioned my frustration that Minnis & Ewer didn’t date their stamps (and neither did V. D. Minnis on his own). I knew they were likely older stamps, as Minnis sadly died young in 1919, but I would have liked to know how old. Well, tonight on my walk…
(Sorry again for having to take this with a flash. It’s quite a bit clearer in person. You can even make it out pretty well in Google Street View!)
I found this slab on the west side of Custer, between Jerome and Vine (just north of the intersection with Jerome). As with other Minnis & Ewer work, both the slab and the stamp are in fine condition. The year is clearly “11.” Amusingly, the first half-formed thought that crossed my mind was “that can’t possibly be right” followed by “oh… nineteen eleven.” The only trouble is that what I presume to be the month is illegible. It is something rounded on both sides, a single digit. It is so worn in the center that there is no telling what. My immediate impression was 9, but I suspect some psychological bias in that. It could be 6 or 8.
As often happens with my best finds, I had already taken a picture I intended to use for today’s entry when I saw this. Because of that I almost didn’t pay attention to it. It was on the street I was passing rather than in my direction of travel, and I glanced at it, thinking, “Oh, another Minnis & Ewer stamp; if only it were dated.” But for some reason I gave it a second glance and saw something was stamped below the logo, and I stopped short, and saw that it was a date.
This raises some interesting questions. Did Minnis & Ewer start out dating stamps, then abandon that practice? Or was it the other way around? If I knew which it was, this could have some bearing on resolving the question of whether V.D. Minnis was on his own before or after working with Ewer, because Minnis’s company didn’t date stamps either.
This stamp, on the east side of the 300 block of Regent Street (between Kalamazoo and Michigan), is very worn and is more easily visible at certain times of day, especially on a sunny late afternoon. I’ve learned that just because I can’t read a stamp at first doesn’t mean I never will; sometimes it’s a matter of passing it at the right time. I really wanted a picture of this one despite my recent glut of Department of Public Works stamps because of its strange placement.
The great majority of stamps are centered, left-to-right, at the bottom of the slab. Occasionally they are at the top of the slab instead. But this is the only one I have seen like this, diagonal in a corner. I have seen plenty of similar DPW stamps, but all of them more conventionally placed. I wonder what happened here.
The date is difficult to read, but after seeing it in a few different lighting conditions and feeling it carefully with my fingers, I am pretty confident it is 1921. There seems to be a month stamped before the year, but it is illegible. Maybe someday I’ll walk past it at the right time.
At some point after the 1980s, L & L Construction apparently decided not to bother getting another fancy stamp and switched to this more home-made looking one. It’s a pretty common sight around my usual blocks, usually dated 1999 or 2000. This one is on the curb cut leading across Regent Street heading east on the south side of Michigan Avenue. There is a corresponding one on the other side of Regent and several others in nearby blocks of Michigan Avenue.
I used to think these had been drawn by hand, but I’ve changed my mind, because they are too consistent. Rather, I think the handwritten look is because the stamp (or perhaps stencil) was made in house and a bit rudely.
I think L & L ranks pretty high up among the most common stamps in my part of the east side. It’s not so common as the ubiquitous Cantu & Sons or the various versions of DPW/O & M, but it’s getting up there.
Continuing on yesterday’s theme, there are several 1930s Department of Public Works stamps on the east side of South Clemens Avenue between Kalamazoo and Prospect, including two especially clear and well-preserved stamps, both dated 1930.
I had to use a flash as I was walking at night, so I apologize for the glare.
Continuing my project of cataloguing the changes in Lansing Department of Public Works stamps over the years, I present this very worn stamp on the east side of the 200 block of Regent Street, between Kalamazoo and Michigan. There are at least three 1938 or 1939 DPW stamps in that area, which makes me wonder a little bit about whether I have correctly dated that “1938” B.F. Churchill stamp nearby.
I can’t seem to find very much out about McNeilly Construction, the contractor that (as far as my eyes can tell) was responsible for this 1971 mark on the south side of East Kalamazoo Street between Regent and Leslie.
I notice an unusual placement of the stamp near the top rather than bottom of the slab (as seems more common).
I can find that McNeilly were located at 421 E. Maple St. The Lansing State Journal of June 15, 2004, reported that the former owner, Rolland “Barney”/”Ray” McNeilly, would be celebrating his 90th birthday on June 18. He was then living in Grand Ledge and had retired in 1986. He had moved to Lansing in 1960 and worked for Reniger Construction for a while before starting his own company. (I previously wrote about B.F. Churchill, who had also worked for Reniger, but in the 1920s.) The LSJ death notices of August 2 of the same year report that McNeilly died on July 30. I am unsure when McNeilly Construction dissolved, but it does not seem to be in business now.
Though I can’t tell you much else about McNeilly, I can tell you a bit about the address this slab is in front of, 1820 East Kalamazoo. It is currently home to the Auto Surgeon. Although they’re not my regular mechanic (I have gotten into the habit of going to the dealer for all my repairs since money got less tight for me), they are nice folks and have done some work for me before, including doing some small fixes for free.
The building was constructed in 1963, but unfortunately I’m not able to tell you who was there in 1971. My Lansing State Journal online access through my employer gives me only 1980 through 2011. The first reference to the building I can find is from 1983 when a real estate agent was advertising it for sale. On December 24, 1988, a new business notice appears for that address. To my surprise, the new business was Greg’s Bowling Supply. I was not expecting that. Sadly, Greg’s must not have lasted long. On July 28, 1990, a classified advertisement appears inviting experienced mechanics with their own tools to send resumes to 1820 E. Kalamazoo, no business name given. Afterward, classified ads for used cars at that address pop up regularly, but the name of any business located there is a mystery to me.
In 1994, the property shows up in real estate listings again, advertised as “Four bay garage, DNR approved.” Then on November 6, 1995, a new business listing appears for Dealer’s Automotive.
Meanwhile, however, the first advertisement for Auto Surgeon, Inc., shows up on October 4, 1991, but located at 615 E. Kalamazoo, the current location of another mechanic, Professional Fleet Services. Finally, the first reference I can find to the Auto Surgeon being located at 1820 East Kalamazoo is an advertisement on August 11, 1998. I moved to Lansing in June 1999, so I have only ever known them there.
This one gives me a lot to write about, almost all of it about cars. Out in front of Feldman Chevrolet are several of these neatly-inscribed marks from The Christman Co. Builders, all dated 1960, and that got me thinking about what this stretch of pavement was like in 1960. Since I moved to Lansing in 1999 this – the corridor on either side of the US-127 overpass – has been seen as a bleak, forsaken stretch of Michigan Avenue. But in 1960 the nearby Frandor was a new, shiny, ultra-modern shopping center, instead of a vast plain of traffic and sadness fronted by a dead Sears.
Christman apparently laid this entire stretch of sidewalk alongside the dealership. Their stamp appears back-to-back like this, every few slabs.
In those days, this was Bud Kouts Chevrolet. Bud Kouts had bought the dealership in 1954, prior to which it had been called Wolverine Chevrolet. Wolverine had originally been located in downtown Lansing. Capital Gains magazine says that it moved “just after World War II,” and the Lansing property records show the current dealership office as dating to 1946, though it has been renovated into unrecognizability.
The Iding family purchased Bud Kouts in 1977, but the name must have carried a good reputation, because the Idings kept it until they sold the business in 2014 to established Detroit-area dealer Feldman. In turn Feldman branded itself as “Feldman’s Bud Kouts Chevrolet” for a few years, though that seems to have ended at some point. I notice that the business property ownership, according to Lansing records, is still in the hands of “Feldkouts LLC.”
Looking east on Michigan Avenue. This stretch of sidewalk has all been stamped at regular intervals.
So this bit of pavement was laid in what must have been a strikingly different Michigan Avenue corridor, yet in front of a business that still had many more years ahead of than behind it.
The stamps in my above photo appear on the two nearest slabs shown here.
As for Christman Co., they have done even better than Wolverine Chevy. They were established in 1894 in South Bend, Indiana and today have numerous offices in various states. Their Lansing office, still downtown, opened in 1919, though by then they had already done major projects for both MSU (then MAC) and Olds. In 1920 they built the Verlinden Street plant for Durant, later bought by GM and known formally as Lansing Car Assembly Plant #6 or colloquially, Fisher Body. The very last Oldsmobile was built there. I remember hearing about its demolition, which happened in 2007, but I was too absorbed in personal crisis to pay it as much attention as I now wish I had.
This is another one of the many 1999-dated Able stamps around the east side, in this case on the south side of Jerome just east of Horton. When I wrote my last Able Concrete entry, I failed to recognize something that subsequently hit me while watching TV. Oh yeah… it’s the people with the jingle! “We’re ready, we’re willing, we’re Able… Concrete!” Unfortunately, I can’t find the jingle online, but if you watch TV in the Lansing market then you know what I am talking about. I had not made the connection at first.
Unlike, say, Cantu Builders, who have drifted away from their concrete business roots, Able Concrete still proudly have concrete right in their jingle. (Note: if you experience concrete in your jingle that lasts more than four hours, seek medical attention.)
There are lots of Cantu & Sons stamps on Horton Street (and indeed, everywhere in the neighborhood, as I’ve mentioned before) including this one on the east side of the street between Jerome and the northern dead end. Several just like this one are near the 1944 DPW stamp I previously featured.
What’s interesting about this one is the fact that Cantu & Sons apparently got a new style of stamp midway through 1987. Some 1987 stamps, and all 1988 stamps I have seen, just have “Cantu & Sons” and the date; other 1987 stamps, like this one, add “Cement Cont.” My guess is that this represents a name change. They may have dropped “Cement Contractors” as their business expanded beyond cement. Perhaps this was a pivotal moment on their way to becoming the Cantu Builders of today.
Update 3/11/21: I have discovered that Google maps has lied to me, and Horton is an Avenue, not a Street.
