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Regent St., Glatz graffiti, 1993(?)

This bit of graffiti is on the east side of Regent Street’s 300 block, between Michigan and Kalamazoo. The date is hard to ascertain. The first digit looks to be a 9, but the second? Up close it looks like a crooked 1. From a distance it seems to resolve to a 3, but it’s hard to be sure that isn’t a trick of the light.

References to various Glatz family members at this address start popping up occasionally in the (Lansing) State Journal in 1956. The last one I can find is in 1964. On April 8, it was reported that “Mr. and Mrs. Noble L. Bell of 1727 Bailey St. East Lansing, will host a rehearsal dinner Friday evening honoring their son, Danny Lowell Bell, and his fiance, Miss Margaret Louise Glatz…. Miss Glatz is the daughter of Mr. and Mrs. Harry J. Glatz of 307 Regent St.” Elsewhere, the same issue lists recent marriage licenses, among them Bell and Glatz’s. There Margaret’s address is also given as 307 Regent.

Because the online parcel records for Lansing only have sales records from around 2000 on, I don’t know when the Glatz family left the house. I wonder what they would think of it now that the current landlord has replaced the entire front yard with gravel so the tenants can use it for parking.

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E. Michigan Ave., Eastlund Concrete, 1970

This is my new earliest Eastlund Concrete stamp. It’s on the north side of East Michigan Avenue between Ferguson and Holmes.

This building was constructed in 1972, according to the city parcel records. It was a Goodyear service center which had its grand opening in March 1973, and closed sometime in the 2010s. It has stood there looking sad ever since. In 2019 the building was sold to the expanding chicken heart known as Sparrow. I don’t know what they are doing with it. It appears to have some miscellaneous junk stored in the service bays, and the windows on the retail side are covered up.

The view east on Michigan Avenue. The stamp isn’t really visible here but is at the lower right corner of the photo.
This is the eastern end of the building.

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Regent St., Cantu & Sons, 1987

I bet you think this is the same stamp I did yesterday, since this one is also on the east side of Regent Street’s 400 block between Kalamazoo and Elizabeth. Wrong! This one is… a couple of lots over. But you know this one is different because it’s next to my nemesis, the Super Bright Streetlight.

A few years ago, someone apparently ran a car into the old one that stood here and it broke into three pieces. It was lying on the yard next door for a little while before it was cleared away, and during that time I discovered that the globe is not, as I had always assumed, glass, but instead a surprisingly light piece of plastic that looks rather cheap up close. I felt the scales fall from my eyes and I have never looked at the street lamps in the city the same way again.

The worst streetlight on Regent Street, presiding over today’s stamp.

When they replaced it, the new one was worse in two ways. It never got painted white to match the other streetlights in the area. Instead it is just rust colored, and in fact the color seems to be authentic rust, although my father has the minority opinion that it’s actually primer. Every time I see it, I think of someone insulting a car in Grease: “What color is that, candy apple primer?”

The other way is that instead of the dimmer, yellow sodium appearance, it has been given an LED makeover and is now a bluish-white color, brighter than the sun. Note how it appears to be going supernova in my photo.

For a while I cursed the driver who subjected my block to this new lamp, but soon the LED issue will be moot, because they are planning to comprehensively replace all the lamps with LEDs in this neighborhood by 2022.

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Regent St., Cantu & Sons, 1987

I took this in the morning (the other morning, the one you might call “yesterday morning” if you have subsequently slept) before a day at Cedar Point. It’s on the east side of Regent Street’s 400 block, between Kalamazoo and Michigan.

We got into automotive shenanigans on the way home that will probably be funny to retell someday, but that day isn’t today and I’m not awake enough in any case. OK, one tidbit: I ended up walking home from the US-127 exit at Kalmazoo through two-foot-plus deep water at 3:30 am and then getting sprayed by a skunk.

In case you don’t know what the 400 block of Regent looks like yet.
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Regent St., Cantu & Sons, 1988

This is on the east side of Regent Street’s 300 block, between Michigan and Kalamazoo. Yeah, yeah, it’s the most dirt-standard catalogue entry. I posted three times yesterday, I figure I can coast for a couple of days. I can’t quite bring myself to give up daily posting yet.

It’s one of the ones (they are numerous) that has the 7 changed to an 8.
The stamp in context in front of someone’s front walk, facing northeast.

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Update: previously illegible Regent St., C.D. Chamberlain, 1950

I have walked past this stamp so many times, and periodically I start thinking I can almost read it, especially at night under the streetlight. What threw me is that the first two letters looked like “CD” but the entire stamp looked like one word, rather than initials and a surname. I could also tell that the last four letters were -LAIN and I kept thinking it was some variation of McClain or McLain, but those leads were not fruitful.

Tonight I walked past it and suddenly thought if I stopped and stared, this time I would get it. And what do you know? I did. My brain suddenly organized the shadows into “CD CHAMBERLAIN” – though the spacing is so close it still looks like one long word.

Can you see it now? Suddenly I could!

The stamp is on the west side of the 100 block of Regent Street, south of East Michigan Avenue, alongside the former Pagoda Restaurant. There are two of them, but this one is the more legible.

The first thing I did was go to Find A Grave and check for a C.D. Chamberlain. I found Claude D. Chamberlain, 1914-1998, which seemed promising. Turning to the (Lansing) State Journal, I found lots and lots and lots of references to Mrs. Claude D. Chamberlain in the Society pages in the 1950s and 60s. Mrs. Chamberlain was very active with several organizations, including the American Association of University Women, the St. Lawrence Hospital Auxiliary, and the Lansing Fine Arts Council. I also found her obituary; her name was Jean, and she died in late 2015 at the age of 98. Her name (as “Mrs. Claude”) appeared in the State Journal so much that it interfered with my trying to find anything out about Claude. I was unable to find his obituary, or anything about his life. Eventually I found a single reference to him that justifies identifying him as probably the C.D. Chamberlain of this stamp. On March 31, 1957, the name “Claude D. Chamberlain” appears in a list of “Blue Ribbon Builders” associated with some upcoming open houses.

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E. Michigan Ave., Able Concrete, 1998

This pair of stamps is in front of the building that houses The People’s Kitchen on the south side of East Michigan Avenue between Charles and Detroit. I previously covered a Hanneman stamp near these. The east side of the building is occupied by The People’s Kitchen; the west side currently houses JWR Health Services.

The eastern stamp. The Hanneman stamp is just out of frame below this, facing the other way.
The eastern stamp, and a pleasantly weathered bench.
The western stamp.
The western stamp in context, and JWR Health Services.
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Regent St., C. Gossett, 1968

My wrist RSI is badly flared up right now so this will be very brief. Here is a 1968 C. Gossett stamp, like many on this block, from the east side of Regent Street’s 400 block, between Kalamazoo and Prospect. I promise this is one I haven’t done before, but it looks identical with quite a few that I have.

Sorry it’s dark. I had to take my walk after midnight because I was occupied with something all evening.
Looking north on Regent with Kalamazoo in sight. The stamp is in all that foreground darkness.

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Regent St., O & M, undated

Continuing my catalog of Regent Street, here is an undated O & M (Operations and Maintenance) stamp from the east side of Regent Street’s 400 block between Kalamazoo and Elizabeth. It’s a shame O & M was in the habit of not dating stamps at some point probably in the 2000s, but at least it’s stamped at all.

Looking north on Regent Street. The stamp is on the lighter-colored block in the middle distance, a half dozen away from the camera.
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Hickory St., DPW, 1921

This Department of Public Works stamp is on the north side of Hickory Street between Jones and Holmes. I’ll always collect a diagonal DPW stamp; they seem almost always to be from 1921. This one has a further quirk in that the year has been stamped upside-down at a rather haphazard angle.

I suspect this one is actually a pair to another diagonal one a couple of lots east on Hickory, close to the corner of Holmes.