This is a rather plain East Jordan Iron Works manhole cover, at a property on the west side of South Clemens Avenue between Prospect and Michigan. What’s odd about it, and piqued my interest, is that it’s situated within someone’s front walk. In fact, the walk seems to widen there to accommodate it.
File this under “curiosities.” This is the northern terminus of the sidewalk on the east side of Elvin Court. Ahead is the Armory.
What makes this a curiosity is that the sidewalk ends mid-lot without any apparent reasoning behind it. On the west side, the sidewalk ends at the end of the last house’s lot, providing a de facto path into the Armory grounds. Here, though, it ends in front of the house, but not at the front door (which is on the south side of the house). Why did they say “this far, and no farther”? Usually if a sidewalk doesn’t go to the end of the block, it ends at someone’s front walk.
There is another curiosity on Elvin Court, which it shares with Horton Street one block east. The street numbers on the northernmost end go up to 253 instead of topping out at 237 which is normal for a Lansing block. This is a consequence of the fact that the 200 block actually extends past Vine Street, which is usually the border between the 200 and 300 block. Although Vine doesn’t cross Elvin, the invisible extended line of absent cross streets is still usually taken to demarcate blocks and the house numbers change accordingly. But on Elvin and Horton, the 200 block continues north of this invisible line. If one were to walk due east from Horton’s 200 block, one would end up on the 300 block of Clemens. Most of the house numbering in Lansing is so satisfyingly orderly that I’m always a bit affronted when I find the odd exceptions.
I’m surprised I hadn’t noticed this one before. It’s the only J. Carter stamp I have found besides the cluster of them on Michigan Avenue near Sparrow. It’s on the east side of Allen Street between Kalamazoo and Marcus, on the west side of the Neogen building (the former Allen Street School).
This is another Mount Pleasant digression, an advertisement of the heated sidewalk in front of Anspach Hall on Central Michigan University’s campus, on the east side of South Washington Street between Library Drive and Ottawa Court. I see this stamp all the time on my way in and out from work, and I like the look of the typeface. It’s a very 1970s font, although I believe this was installed during Anspach’s renovation in the 2010s.
Another disappointment, I’m afraid, though at least I aimed the photo to show you some of the Christmas lights I get to enjoy on my walks. These brand new sidewalk blocks are on North Fairview Avenue, at the southwest corner of Fairview and Vine. I passed by here several days ago when the new sidewalk was under a tarp, presumably curing, so I made a point to go back in case I got to see a brand new stamp. I didn’t have high hopes, though. Almost none of the new sidewalk construction I have seen this year has been stamped, with the exception of the Leavitt & Starck sidewalk alongside Allen Place.
I took this photo when returning to the car after Silver Bells (Lansing’s annual holiday parade). The stamp is located inside the Lansing Center’s parking garage off City Market Drive.
I had previously and mistakenly believed that the Lansing Center was built in the 1950s. I think I had been confused by reading old newspapers that referenced a civic center in connection with popular midcentury mayor Ralph W. Crego. In fact, that was the Lansing Civic Center, which functioned mainly as a concert venue. It was renamed the Lansing Civic Arena in its later years to avoid confusion with the Lansing Center. The Lansing Center was only built in 1987, which is very surprising to me. That means when I came to town in 1999 it practically had a bit of new-development shine still on it. The Lansing Civic Arena was demolished in 1999. It had been at the southeast corner of Allegan and Pine Streets.
I spotted this new-to-me contractor stamp while I was downtown to walk in the Turkey Trot 5K on Thanksgiving morning. It’s on the west side of North Grand Avenue next to Fire Station #1, which faces Shiawassee. There is a stamp on the driveway apron as well as the sidewalk.
According to the city’s Web site about fire stations, Fire Station #1 was built in 1949 and extensively remodeled in 2006, which accounts for why it looks rather new. It is nicknamed “The Big House.”
I can’t find out much about F & M Construction. Most likely they are F & M Concrete Construction, which I can find listings for placing them on Creyts Road in Dimondale. OpenCorporates shows that “F and M Concrete Construction LLC” of Dimondale only incorporated in 2013, but I would guess it is the same business responsible for this stamp.
I had thought I’d catalogued every 1920s stamp on the east side of Lansing, but I was wrong. I stumbled across this 1925 Lansing DPW stamp on the south side of Fernwood Avenue between Magnolia and Hayford.
I walked the Silver Bells in the City 5K the morning after Silver Bells (Lansing’s annual holiday night parade) and afterward on the way back to my car I snapped this photo of a nice sewer grate – actually a storm drain, since Lansing did a huge project to separate their sanitary sewer from the stormwater drains around the time I moved to Lansing. I remember being unreasonably annoyed by it at the time, since it resulted in my closest bus stop being closed for a long time, and for a portion of that the second closest bus stop too, when I did most of my daily travel by bus. Also during that time the closest USPS mailbox to my house disappeared and was never put back when the construction was over. But, of course, I look back on it now and realize that my long walks were a small price to pay for the great environmental benefits of the sewer separation. I just wonder how people less able bodied than I, or with less free time to spend on walks, dealt with the loss of bus service.
I like the detailed fish (a trout, maybe) that serves to remind one of the harm done by dumping poison into the drain. There is also a small one at the bottom of the grate. This is the work of the East Jordan Iron Works, which you can read more about in a previous entry.
This drain is on the south side of West Michigan Avenue, at the southwest corner of Michigan and South Washington Square. I remember when this was just an intersection, but now it’s a traffic circle, and they put these giant ornaments (supplied by Bronner’s, the famed Christmas store in Frankenmuth) in the middle of it each year before Silver Bells.
I’ve already branched out into manhole covers, so why not wander further afield? Here is a water meter cover from Bingham & Taylor, a Virginia-based business that manufactures water and gas utility supplies.
It’s out in front of the Light Mission Pentecostal Church on the east side of Marshall Street between Jerome and the Armory.
The church was home to Unity of Greater Lansing from 1968 to 2012. The city’s online records don’t have the date it was built, but the parsonage next door (which was sold by Unity and is now just a private residence) was built in 1957 so I would guess a similar date for the church. It has a 1950s look to it, anyway.
