I picked up this one on a driveway apron on the west side of North Fairview Avenue between Vine and Fernwood. I can’t resist a 1920s stamp, even if they are much more common than I originally thought when I started the blog.
Unfortunately, while I can read the date fine, the name is deep but obscure. It looks to end with -ER, possibly -MMER or -NNER, but I can’t figure anything else out. Normally a driveway apron stamp of this age would likely be Lansing DPW, but what I can make out of this one does not match that. I tried using a flashlight to cast a raking light across it, which sometimes helps, but it didn’t do any good this time. Maybe next time I see it in daylight I’ll be luckier.
Looking south on Fairview. The stamp is on the driveway apron, bottom of the photo just right of center.
This garden variety Able stamp is on the north side of East Michigan Avenue between Horton and Clemens, in front of the Capitol Macintosh/Lansing Central AA building. This is a couple of doors east of the City Pulse building and their respective Able stamps are probably siblings.
This isn’t related to the stamp, but I have a fun story about Capitol Mac. A couple of years ago my elderly MacBook was having issues with the touchpad. I’d had some unpleasant experiences with Capitol Mac, but I felt guilty going to the Apple Store instead of supporting a local business, so I thought I would give them one more chance and dropped my computer off with them. A few days later they called to say that they had a break-in and one of the things stolen was my MacBook. I got paid $300 (the value of my aged computer) and then proceeded to go through way more than $300 worth of grief trying to put my digital life back in order. The rest of that story also involves a really bad experience with the Apple Store, so no one comes out smelling like roses in this. But that’s enough about that. Back to this spot on Michigan Avenue.
Facing northeast. I think the stamp is on the bottom edge of the photo, on the nearest partial block, though it’s not possible to make it out.
This is another instance of a storefront built in front of an old house, common on this stretch of Michigan. The house, as far as can be seen, is a large and handsome Victorian. According to the city’s parcel records, it was built in 1889. The records claim that the office space was also built in 1889, but I find that hard to believe.
Capitol Macintosh moved in here sometime in the 2000s, having previously been located in Frandor under the name Eubulus. Around that time the office building, previously a plain box, had a cosmetic overhaul, giving it a gabled entrance and faux gables on the sides, as well as eyebrow details over the side windows. These elements were chosen to match the house, albeit in an amusement-park sort of way.
A search through the [Lansing] State Journal turns up (ready for it?) two car dealers previously at this address, Stratton Sports Cars (October 1, 1961) and Precision Imports (July 1, 1969). Ads throughout 1980 offered the space for a beauty parlor, implying it was set up as one in the 1970s sometime. I also see from some mentions in the social pages that it was the residence of Mr. and Mrs. Charles Horn in the 1950s. Most interesting to me is that on November 27, 1926, there is an advertisement for Faggion Plumbing and Heating at this address. I previously wrote about Mundo Faggion Plumbing and Heating as the former occupant of the Mercy Ambulance building, but Mr. Faggion’s obituary claimed that his business was founded in 1929. Either that date is incorrect or they are not the same business, although surely they are at least related.
The city’s records have (undated) accounts for a few other businesses using the address: Tax Lien Inspection Company, First Hand Impressions, Advanced Computer, and Creative Touch Hair & Nails Design.
Nothing much to bring you tonight, so here’s another one of the usual Regent Street suspects, this one on the east side of the 400 block, between Kalamazoo and Elizabeth. It does occur to me that it’s odd that there are both 1987 and 1988 stamps from Cantu on the same blocks. I have been assuming that there was a big, mass sidewalk replacement project that Cantu got the contract for, and that it took them more than one year to do it. I would have thought they would do one block or street at a time, however, and that all the ones in one area would be the same year. Instead the ’87s and a couple of different styles of ’88s are intermixed.
Looking north on Regent, with one of the nice street trees watching over the stamp.
This small, almost modest bit of graffiti is in front of Bill Leech’s Repair Service on the north side of East Michigan Avenue between Clemens and Fairview. I am going to assume that Mr. Leech himself did this, absent evidence to the contrary.
Bill Leech’s Web site unfortunately does not give a history of the company and I can’t find much about them searching the Lansing State Journal. They have certainly been located here since before I moved to the city in 1999, and Open Corporates gives their incorporation date as October 19, 1983 (under the name Bill’s Appliance Service Center, Inc).
The stamp in context, in the corner of the block below the pot of Coleus plants and lamp post.
I really like the midcentury look of the storefront with its stone siding and angled doorway. According to the city’s parcel records, it was built in 1950. Prior to that, in the 1940s, there was… any guesses? Anyone? Yes, you are correct: there was a car dealer here, Ron LeButt Auto Sales. I first see an ad for Modern TV Center in the October 12, 1954, State Journal. The latest ad for Modern TV that I can find ran on August 1, 1970.
This stamp is in front of the City Pulse office, which was built (presumably as a residence) in 1904. The newspaper moved in around 2011. Prior to that they had been located a little way east, in the small brick storefront on Michigan Avenue across Clemens from the Speedway station. (That spot later became the original location of Strange Matter Café.)
There is a bare pole out from that must have held a sign for a previous business, though I don’t know which one, since it’s been empty as long as I remember. The earliest business I can find at the address was the Sargeant Music Studio, presided over by Mrs. Robert Sargeant, which was there at least through the years of 1951 to 1961. I can’t seem to turn up anything in the 1970s, but then in 1981 it becomes the Gnome Sweet Shop, offering candy-making supplies and lessons. According to the April 16, 1984, Lansing State Journal, the shop was owned by a former Rockette named Carol Emerson. There are hints of trouble in the short piece, as she talks about needing to move to a new and ideally larger location. I can’t find any references to the Gnome Sweet Shop after this article. The next thing I can find is that it was the campaign headquarters for Virg Bernero’s 2010 gubernatorial campaign. Interestingly, the sales history in the city parcel records show a quit claim from the estate of Robert Sargeant in 2006, suggesting the Sargeants held onto the property after the studio was no longer a going concern.
The article on the Gnome Sweet Shop describes the building as yellow. A photograph dated 2001 in the city’s records show it blue, and derelict looking. It is currently a dull grayish color.
The bright blur in the upstairs window is actually the City Pulse neon sign.
This stamp is on the south side of East Michigan Avenue between Shepard and Allen, in front of Tannin. The “7” appears written on after stamping, though whether it is covering up an outdated number or is just reinforcing a number that didn’t print well, I can’t tell.
Tannin is an upscale Italian fusion restaurant, not the kind of place that appeals to me so I haven’t been there. It replaced the original location of a small local Mediterranean fast food chain called Tabooli, which was one of the go-to lunch spots for my husband and me. (Tabooli still has two other locations, but they aren’t as convenient for us.) Tabooli had opened in 2014 after renovating a former KFC. I was glad they did, because seeing that KFC inevitably made me think of the name that had gotten indelibly attached to it in my mind: “the Murder KFC.” In 2011 an employee was killed during an armed robbery. I’m not sure whether it ever opened again after the murder, but it had certainly been abandoned for some time before Tabooli moved in.
Awnings or not, it still kinda looks like a KFC.
The building only dates to 1987 according to the city’s parcel records, but there was a KFC at that address at least as far back as 1968, per an advertisement in the State News (MSU’s student paper) on December 7. The only previous mention of that address that I can find is in a news brief in the August 18, 1955, [Lansing] State Journal:
$10 Stolen – Lansing police detectives are Investigating the burglary of the Pure Oil station at 1620 E. Michigan Ave. Wednesday evening. Detectives said the burglars gained entry through a window and stole $10 in coins from a vending machine.
Since the date of the stamp matches the construction date of the building, it seems possible that the sidewalk repair and the building’s construction were linked.
I spent all evening at the Calhoun County Fair in Marshall, so this is neither in Lansing nor a sidewalk, but it’s neat enough that I thought I would use it for tonight’s entry. Rather than a stamp, it is a small metal plaque set into the concrete floor of one of the livestock barns. There is one at each of the two front entrances. I have seen pictures from other cities of early sidewalk stamps that look like this, though I have never seen one like that myself.
Duckworth Brothers are currently still in business in Battle Creek, and have an amusing duck mascot. According to their Web site, they were founded in 1967 by the father of the current owner, Al Duckworth.
A view into the sheep/goat barn. The plaque is just left of center at the bottom.
This isn’t my usual kind of sidewalk marking, but I got a kick out of it, so here you go. Someone on the east side of North Magnolia Avenue between Fernwood and Saginaw has written their house number quite large on their driveway concrete. You’d think this would be more common, actually, but I haven’t seen it before.
I pass this house all the time, on the east side of South Clemens Avenue between Michigan and Prospect. Its front walk is marked “KLH” and it is so neat and central that I have come to think of it as the house’s monogram.
It seems that it may be the mark of KLH Contracting, a home remodeling company in Pinckney. Unfortunately, their web site doesn’t give a company history. Open Corporates has an incorporation date of February 3, 2016.
This stamp is on a driveway on the east side of North Magnolia Avenue between Fernwood and Saginaw. The date is much more legible than the previous McClain driveway stamp I found on Marshall, but their similarity reinforces my belief that the other one is also 1999.
The stamp in context (looking north), at the bottom of the driveway. Bonus C. Gossett (1960) and Barnhart & Sons (1987) stamps are also visible.
