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S. Magnolia Ave., Wm. De Groat, 1969

Here’s a new one for you, and I can even read it this time: “Wm. De Groat.” It’s on the west side of South Magnolia Avenue between Michigan and Prospect.

Unfortunately, my recent bad luck with finding out information about contractors continues. I haven’t been able to learn anything about William De Groat, unless he’s the same “Bill DeGroat” who shows up in the Lansing State Journal league bowling results between 1949 and 1951. Bill DeGroat receives mention several times as one of the people who bowled over 200 on a given night. Perhaps it’s him, perhaps it’s a relative, and perhaps it’s just a coincidental name.

Looking north on South Magnolia with the stamp at the bottom of the frame and Michigan Avenue visible at the top.
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Vine St., E. Schullberger (?) [Schneeberger], 1926

This one caught my eye between its 1926 date, its nice design, and its jaunty diagonal placement, so I had to capture it even though it is actually on the edge of someone’s driveway. That’s a first for the blog, I think, though I’ve done driveway aprons before. It’s placed in the lower right corner of a driveway on the north side of Vine just east of the corner of Clemens. It belongs to the house on that corner. I took a couple of photos, one with and one without flash, figuring I would be able to work out the contractor’s name when I got home. It was dark, and it’s often easier to look at what the camera saw than use my own eyes in that kind of light.

When I got home I was mildly dismayed to discover that it’s the same mysterious contractor I previously wrote about, and the name is no more legible this time. If anything, it’s worse. I had taken it to read “E. Schullberger” before, but could not find anyone by that name when searching old Lansing State Journals, which makes it suspect. Update 5/9/21: I now believe this to be E. Schneeberger.

Looking east on Fairview. The stamp is just left of bottom center, in the bottom right corner of the presumed original driveway. The car is parked on an additional (asphalt) paved area that appears to be a later addition.
The flash didn’t prove illuminating, but here it is with.
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S. Hayford Ave., Cantu & Sons, undated

The sidewalks were less hazardous when I went out today, but slushier, so it was difficult to find an uncovered stamp. I settled for this garden variety Cantu & Sons stamp on the east side of South Hayford Avenue alongside Provident Place.

It is strange, though, that this one is undated. Undated stamps are always something of a mystery, but this one is even more so. The city code says that sidewalk work must be marked with a name and date, so undated stamps might reflect contractors who are either ignorant of or unconcerned with the law. But that can’t be the case here, since dated Cantu & Sons stamps are very common. Did they forget their date stamp that day, or just forget to use it?

Looking at Provident Place, with the stamp in question located on the nearest (full) slab, facing the other way.
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Bensch St., DPW, 1980

I went further afield than usual in search of Christmas lights and ended up walking past the freeway into the Potter-Walsh neighborhood. This is an ordinary 1980s DPW stamp on the east side of Bensch Street between Walsh and Perkins.

I chose this one mainly so I could treat you to some more lights in honor of the holiday. Happy new year from Capital City Sidewalks! I hope you find this one better than the last. And if somehow 2020 was a good year for you, I still hope 2021 is even better yet.

The featured stamp is in front of this very festive yard.
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N. Holmes St., C. Gossett, 1960

It was another peaceful night of walking around looking at holiday lights, that is, until shortly after I took this photo, when I hit a patch of ice and ended up flat on my back with numb limbs and fuzzy vision. My first thought was “oh good, my camera is fine” and my second thought was “I hope I’m not hurt.” I was OK after lying on the sidewalk a little while.

Anyway, this one (on the east side of North Holmes Street between Vine and Jerome) is a C. Gossett stamp, one of the especially common stamps around the east side. You might have to take my word for that. It looked perfectly clear to me at the time but apparently the flash was too much. There is a paired one (separated by one block) but my photo of that one came out even worse. So instead, enjoy some lights.

Looking north on East Holmes. The closest house is the one with the stamp, in front of its driveway.

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N. Clemens Ave., Barnhart & Sons, 1986

There are quite a few Barnhart & Sons stamps in the neighborhoods north of Michigan. In fact, I could have sworn I had done one before and was surprised to discover otherwise. This one is on the east side of North Clemens Avenue just south of the corner of Vine.

There is currently a Barnhart and Son (singular) Construction based in Holt. I would guess that is the descendent of the 1980s Barnhart & Sons, but if so, they have changed their line of work a bit. They currently do excavation and sewer work.

I photographed this one mainly as an excuse to demonstrate how splendidly lit the neighborhood has been this season – even more than past years, I dare say. This is the house with the featured stamp (and one or two other Barnhart stamps too, but my hands were getting cold).

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Leslie St., Trendel, 1956

It’s nice to be back in the land of milk and honey and abundant stamps. I’m struck once again by how much more common they are in Lansing than Albion. Our sidewalks are lousy with them, and I mean that in the best possible way.

This pair is on the east side of Leslie Street’s 400 block, between Kalamazoo and Elizabeth. They appear to be handwritten. Unfortunately, I have no information about Trendel.

Looking south on Leslie. The northern one of the pair is just visible at the bottom of the photo.
The southern stamp of the pair, which faces the opposite direction to the northern one, as is typical of paired stamps.

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E. Erie St. [Albion], Miller’s Cement, 1988

My last night walking in Albion for a while and I stuck close to the same blocks as the last couple of nights. Again I saw very few stamps. There are virtually none on the side streets. There are more on Erie, almost approaching a normal number of them, except that they are all from the same contractor, Miller’s Cement of Jackson.

Apparently Miller’s is (or was) a rare company who takes enough pride in their work to stamp sidewalks even when there is (I assume) no oridnance compelling it.

Looking east on East Erie toward Darrow and the railroad tracks beyond. There are several Miller’s Cement stamps along this stretch of Erie.
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Curved Sidewalks and Other Musings in Albion

Once again I went for a walk this evening in Albion. It was quite cold (below 20F) but I managed a decent ramble to look at Christmas lights under falling snow.

Unfortunately, that pretty white dusting left me unable to show a stamp taken today for the first time since I started keeping the blog. Any stamps would be hard to find because there was a layer of snow on all the sidewalks. It isn’t like in Lansing, where I was able to just walk along a block brushing snow from the ends of slabs aside with my boot until I found a legible stamp. Stamps appear to be so infrequent in this area that it would not be worth the effort. I am assuming Albion does not have an ordinance about stamping sidewalks as Lansing does. I am still surprised that it isn’t done as a matter of course by most contractors.

It’s the end of a very good streak, but I will keep up my daily updating streak anyway by showing you an interesting couple of curved sidewalks I found on my walk. The first is on the northeast corner of Elizabeth and Erie. I find it interesting that the sidewalk curves here instead of squaring off the corner as it turns onto Erie. I have not seen one like that in Lansing. It would help prevent people killing the grass by cutting the corner, though would nibble a bit into someone’s property.

Further south on Elizabeth, the sidewalk jogs to avoid a tree, which I also find charming. The tree must have been there first.