This stamp is on North Fairview Avenue just south of the corner of Jerome Street. I can find a T L Contracting that is (or was) on South Lowell in DeWitt, and one (maybe the same one) on Industrial Parkway in Lansing. I can’t find a Web site for the company or any other information.
Here’s another one that looks ambiguously like either graffiti or a contractor mark. Once again I’m inclined to think it’s from the contractor since it follows the grammar of a contractor stamp, except for being freakishly large. I would have thought that the contractor would want to take more pride in their work than to mar their nice new pavement this way, but I’ve been wrong about that before. I’m not sure who or what D M is. There is currently a D & M Concrete in Michigan, but that’s probably a coincidence.
It’s on the north side of East Michigan Avenue between Ferguson and Custer, out in front of the Soup Spoon Cafe, an early entrant in the east side hipster restaurant derby. When I moved to town in 1999, this rather handsome 1906 building was occupied by Bancroft Flowers and Gifts on one side and the Greenhouse Cafe on the other. I believe they were owned by the same people. Sometime in the 2000s, I forget exactly when, the Greenhouse Cafe closed and the Soup Spoon moved in. In 2014, Bancroft closed and the Soup Spoon grew to occupy the entire building.
I would guess that this building was originally a grocery store. I can’t seem to figure out who the original occupant was, but by 1928 it was the Howard Long grocery store.
Here’s a very worn one on the west side of Regent Street midway between Kalamazoo and Elizabeth. The date is definitely 1963, in a big, stylish typeface. It’s always a bit strange when the date is bigger than the name.
As for the name, I believe I can make out “J Wilson.” The name is too common for me to learn much by trying to search the Lansing State Journal, so the contractor will have to remain a mystery for the foreseeable future.
I didn’t forget. I’ve just been up all night writing an exam, and this was my first chance to get this posted. I took a lightly snowy walk in the early evening, enjoying some early Christmas lights (even while mildly disapproving).
There are a bunch of these Eastlund Concrete stamps on Elizabeth Street, but none of them are dated. Scofflaws, I tell you. This one is on the north side of Elizabeth Street, just on the east side of the corner of Lathrop.
Here is my first downtown stamp. It’s on the south side of West Ottawa Street between Capitol and Washington, next to the Anderson House Office Building. I actually stopped briefly during my Silver Bells Virtual 5K Walk to take the photo. I was hoping to find something more unusual downtown, but disappointingly all the ones I passed were fairly recent and familiar. This one is impressively clear and sharp, but unfortunately undated.
It’s interesting how some stamps seem more common in some areas than others. I noticed quite a few Moore Trosper (or Moore-Trosper as it is rendered here) stamps downtown, but they are very uncommon in the east side neighborhoods.
This nice, sharp BBRPCI (BBR Progressive Concrete Inc.) stamp is on the south side of East Michigan Avenue just east of Fairview.
This corner has been a vacant lot for so long (that For Lease sign has been there since at least 2011, per Google Street View) that I had to jog my memory about what used to be there. It was two buildings, one of them an old house and the other a low-slung, dismal commercial building which most recently was the home base of Shaggin’ Wagon Taxi. Recently it has been the temporary quarters of the Allen Farmers Market during construction on the Allen Neighborhood Center.
Searching the Lansing State Journal, I turned up perhaps the most unusual business to have occupied the address. In March 1993, a late-night music venue called The Ibex Sings opened. In May 1993 it closed with a farewell party.
This is just another L & L stamp; at least, I assume so, though they seem to have lost the ampersand this time. The truth is that the other stamp I photographed on tonight’s walk turned out to be one I had done before (which I am now fairly sure is 1952 rather than 1957 by the way), so I have to deploy a less interesting backup. My walks have been limited due to my recent surgery and tonight I had to walk after sunset, so you’ll take this L & L stamp and you’ll like it.
This is near the driveway that leads behind 1700 East Michigan Avenue from the east side of Shepard St. It’s alongside the vacant commercial building that until recently, and for years, was Discount One Hour Signs.
This Department of Public Works stamp is on the west side of Regent Street between Kalamazoo and Elizabeth (400 block). It’s a typical 1940s DPW stamp, quite worn. The date is hard to read and apparently harder to photograph.
That one isn’t too interesting on its own. What’s interesting is the matching one adjacent to it on the driveway apron of the property (see below).
This one is placed diagonally on the corner of the driveway apron, and the date is a lot clearer. This is interesting to me because although I’ve seen driveway aprons with stamps here and there, this is the first one I’ve noticed with a DPW stamp. I’m surprised that the DPW would have been involved in replacing someone’s driveway apron, unless some kind of city work is what caused it to need replacement.
This corner-placed stamp is on the west side of South Hayford Avenue midway between Prospect and Michigan. The contractor is definitely Smith, probably O.M. [something] Smith, and tentatively O.M. Smith. It does look like an M to me. There is another similar stamp on this block but unfortunately the second letter on that one is at least as worn. Although at first glance this looks like 1982, closer inspection shows it is 1962. (I find that is often a hazard of the fonts they like to use for numbers; they tend to have a highly curved 6.)
I haven’t been able to find anything out about the contractor. I can find from the Lansing State Journal that an O.M. Smith was living in Lansing in the 1940s, but nothing about a cement business. Perhaps I’m wrong about it being O.M. Or perhaps I just haven’t done enough research yet. (I can’t help thinking of the character One Million, who goes by “O.M.,” from the Rankin-Bass special Rudolph’s Shiny New Year.)
A tween-aged kid was practicing basketball solo in his driveway, making a go at doing flashy moves like spinning around as he approached the basket. I glanced away as I passed in order to avoid embarrassing him but honestly it was pretty endearing. It reminded me of my brother messing around on his skateboard when we were that age. You can make out just his legs in my photo above.
Update 3/21/21: I now know that it is O.V. Smith, as I happened across his name in the classifieds while research a different contractor!
This Able variation is on the west side of South Magnolia Avenue just south of Prospect. Their name at the time had a more generalist sound to it, versus the current moniker of “Able Concrete.”
I know now to look for a paired stamp and I found one a little way north, but both were facing in the same direction. Usually the paired stamp is facing the opposite way.
This got me wondering. Cantu & Sons has the greatest representation on the east side, hands down. But who covers the greatest span of time? I have found an Able stamp as recent as 2004 and now as early as 1986.
