Here is another one of those mysterious “BdWL” marks. There are a couple of them along this block. This one is on the west side of South Magnolia Avenue, just north of Prospect Street.
S. Magnolia Ave., BdWL, undated
Prospect St., Cantu & Sons, 1993
Yes, yes, I know, another Cantu & Son(s). But this one is notable for being the most recent one I have found. It’s actually a pair of them, on the north side of Prospect Street just west of Fairview.
The style is the same as the ubiquitous 1987-88 stamps except for the handwritten date.
S. Magnolia Ave., DPW, 1986
This DPW variation can be found on the west side of South Magnolia Avenue a short distance south of Michigan Avenue. It is alongside the Hot Water Works hot tub dealer.
No “Lansing” this time, just DPW. I like the design. I always think outlined stamps look smart. I still hope to narrow down when they quit using DPW (or DPS?) and switched to the undated O&M stamps.
Prospect St., Cantu & Sons, undated
This is an unusual Cantu & Sons variation on the south side of Prospect Street just east of the intersection of South Clemens. While I was taking the photo, a car pulled up at the stop sign. I tried to act nonchalant, like I was just checking my texts or something, since I’m always worried someone is going to start asking me what I think I’m doing taking photos of neighborhood streets. But alas, I could hear over my earbuds that the driver, an older man with white hair, was talking to me. I pulled my earbuds out and he was asking me, “Is it an old one?”
I was surprised, but I suppose it was bound to happen eventually that someone would actually know what it was I was after. I explained that it was undated but a variation I hadn’t seen before, and he told me there was a very old one “up that way,” meaning north on Clemens. From the 1920s, he thought. “Oh yeah,” I said, “I think I know the one you mean. It’s 1922 Department of Public Works.” He declared that he thought I was right. I shared with him that the oldest one I’d ever seen was from 1907. After he left I walked away amused with myself for having come across as a human gazetteer of east side sidewalk stamps. A few minutes later I realized that it would have been even more impressive if I had remembered the date right.
S. Clemens Ave., Cantu & Son, 1980
Here is a rare Cantu stamp that isn’t from the 1987-88 swarm, on the east side of South Clemens Avenue between Prospect and Kalamazoo. This one is just Cantu and Son. Evidently only one son had thus far joined the business.
It is difficult to read the date, and the photo doesn’t do much to make it clearer, but close inspection leads me to be pretty sure it is 1980.
S. Magnolia Ave., [maybe] unsigned, 1985
Surprise! I felt up to a short walk after all, so here’s a bonus entry. This is on the west side of South Magnolia Avenue between Michigan and Prospect.
There is a date in the lower right corner, but no name anywhere that I can see. Although scofflaws who stamp a name without a date are fairly common, this is the only date without a name I have seen. I know it’s possible for the name to wear away faster than the date, presumably when the mark is made more shallowly for some reason, but if there was ever one here it is completely gone.
Update 12/20/20: I now know that the Board of Water and Light usually stamps “BWL” in the lower left and a date in the lower right. The date style seems to match theirs. So, my guess on further consideration is that this is a BWL stamp and I missed the mark in the shadow. In fact, I have walked this block in daylight and I am pretty sure I remember a BWL stamp in this vicinity, so that is probably what this is. I’ll have to check again sometime.
The City Code on Marking
Since starting this blog, to my own surprise, I have not missed a single day of posting a new sidewalk stamp. I have a rule that I can only post a stamp I photographed that very day, most often on my daily walk. Thus my blogging and my daily walking habits reinforce each other. Today, however, I will have to have my first off day, as I am going in for surgery and probably will not be in a condition to walk afterward. In fact, I am not sure when I will be able to resume.
So today let me show you something I have saved for just such an occasion: the City of Lansing Municipal Code on sidewalk markings. Early on I had wondered whether contractors mark sidewalks out of some kind of legal obligation, or whether it is just advertising. It turns out it is the former (and probably has the latter as a bonus). Under 1024.10 (d), “Marking,” it states:
Marking. Any person constructing sidewalks or approaches in any right-of-way shall mark each walk or approach with his or her name and with the year in which such walk or approach is built. Letters and figures used in marking shall be not less than one and one-half inches in height and shall be placed in such position on such walk or approach as the Director of Public Service may specify.
City of Lansing Municipal Code, 1024.10 (d)
So all those undated markings? Or worse, the obviously new slabs with no markings at all? Scofflaws.
Also, I wonder if “approach” is what I have been calling a “curb walk.”
N. Clemens Ave., DPW, August 1924
I’m sorry the flash washed this out a bit because it really is a beautifully-preserved stamp, especially the date, from when they still stamped a month. It is on the west side of North Clemens Avenue between Fernwood and Vine.
The block itself is a bit cracked due to having been heaved up, but not too bad.
E. Michigan Ave., LPW (?), 1983
Here’s a puzzling one. I wish I had more time to poke at it tonight, but I’m an hour from bedtime and two hours from being done with my paying work. I was walking east on the north side of East Michigan Avenue between Ferguson and Custer, and ran across what looked like a dated-but-unsigned stamp. Of course, I knew that it surely originally had a name on it, but it was strange for the date to still be clear and the name to be completely gone. I bent down to look closely and could not make out the slightest impression in the blank part of the oval.
I walked a short distance further east and found the paired stamp facing the other direction. This time I could make out letters, but they raised further questions.
It looks to read “L.P.W.” The L is pretty difficult to read and I’m willing to consider that I may be wrong on that, but the P and W are distinct. Lansing Public Works? It seems likely, though they were stamping “Lansing DPW” at least through part of the 1940s. That’s not the puzzling part, though. The puzzling part is that I just recently discovered a Lansing DPS stamp from 1950 and had inferred that the Department of Public Works had become the Department of Public Service around that time. (Today it is the Public Service Department.)
Adding further intrigue to this is the fact that I have found an item in the Lansing State Journal Community Digest of July 2, 1993, advising citizens that the Lansing Department of Public Works was offering phone book recycling.
Regent St., L. Miller, 1963
This very worn and craggy stamp is on the east side of Regent Street between Kalamazoo and Elizabeth (500 block). I read it as L. Miller, 1963. It looks handwritten, and could almost be taken as graffiti, but I lean away from that interpretation because the the placement and name/date format is standard for contractor stamps.
I can find evidence of a contractor and builder named Lloyd Miller in some mid-1950s Lansing State Journal classifieds pages. Miller was based in East Lansing. There also seems to have been a Lloyd Miller real estate agency during the same time period, so it seems like ol’ Lloyd would build you a house or sell you one. My guess is that this is Lloyd Miller’s mark.
