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Black Ct., Martin J. Concrete, 2021

After collecting the stamps from James Street, I decided to walk a little way and see what else I could find, since I’m not very familiar with the neighborhood. I discovered a funny little curved stub of a street called Black Court between James and Dodge River Drive. It looked like the perfect street to find old sidewalks, but as I turned the corner I saw that I was too late. The sidewalks and curbs had clearly been reconstructed at the same time as the one on James, and so all the sidewalk stamps were Martin J. Concrete 2021. These are from the north side of the street in front of the house at the dead end.

Looking at the Google Street View, I can see that the previous sidewalk did not go quite to the curb like it does now. There was a tiny lawn strip, and the sidewalk was abnormally narrow. The curbs also looked shallower. It looks like a clear improvement, yet I have to admit I’m sorry that the new sidewalk lacks certain aesthetic qualities of the old. It used to end by curving gracefully up to the front walk of this house, instead of just truncating a little past it.

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James St., Martin J. Concrete, 2021

After visiting the Turner-Dodge House, I decided to walk around the vicinity a little in search of sidewalk stamps. I had walked this section of James Street looking for stamps in 2020 and didn’t find anything of note, but this time I found that the whole stretch of sidewalk had been redone, the sidewalk had been marked, and best of all, it was by a contractor as yet unknown in this blog.

Martin J. Concrete is based in Coopersville, as the stamp says, which is in the Grand Rapids metro area. Disappointingly, their Web site lacks a company history. They describe themselves as “a West Michigan based Concrete Road Contractor specializing in concrete road construction throughout the State of Michigan.” They also have a page showcasing various major sidewalk projects they have done as well as curb installation. That may be why they were hired for this particular job; the sidewalk here is one of those rare spots around the city (mostly, I assume, on the earliest streets) where there is no lawn extension, so the sidewalk is flush to the curb.

Sorry about the exposure. My camera’s light meter is broken and I don’t always remember to compensate for that.

The stamp uses a template I have seen very often in new sidewalk stamps. The city’s O & M department uses it, as well as numerous private contractors. It’s neat enough, but as a weird connoisseur of sidewalk markings I prefer them less standardized.

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East North Street (behind Turner-Dodge House), H & C, 2004

I was at the Turner-Dodge House for the Fairy Tale Festival on Saturday, and I noticed this H & C stamp on the sidewalk that leads from the rear of the house to the River Trail. It’s a little hard to read the date, but I think it is 2004.

The stamp in context (close to the bottom of the frame). You can see people leaving the Festival, as it has just ended.
And here’s the Turner-Dodge House, from whence the path leads.
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“Condemn Walk to School” clipping, 1917

Between the heat and other interruptions, I still haven’t had a chance to collect any more sidewalk stamps lately, so here’s another old State Journal clipping. The front page (!) of the September 25, 1917, State Journal contains this report from City Council, quoted in its entirety:

Condemn Walk to School. Ald. Bovee denounced the condition of sidewalks leading to Columbia Park school across Michigan Ave. as disgraceful, saying that the lives of school children who were obliged to cross at these places were endangered. Eighth ward citizens were called upon and they declared that the conditions should be remedied. Ald. McKinley then remarked that all that was necessary to do was to circulate petitions and said that If Ald. Bovee was not able to start the petitions that he would try to do it for the eighth ward alderman.

I was surprised to discover that Columbia Park School was a previous name for Foster Avenue School. It joined the Lansing school district in 1916 and received the new name (which is in keeping with the normal Lansing scheme for elementary school names) in 1917 when it was remodeled, according to Capital Area District Library’s local history collection. The new name must have happened rather late in 1917 since it is still known as Columbia Park in this article from September. I’m not sure what the original name refers to.

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Lansing Artificial Stone Co. “Removal Notice”, 1914

It was too hot to go collecting stamps today, so instead I have a news clipping for you. On May 8, 1914, in the State Journal, the Lansing Artificial Stone Co. ran a classified advertisement with a “removal notice.” I had missed this one when doing some research on Lansing Artificial Stone previously. I have to suppose that “removal notice” is a 1910s term for an announcement of moving. Here is the text of the advertisement, in its entirety:

REMOVAL NOTICE We have moved our office to 109 North Cedar first door north of Michigan Ave. Let us give you prices on your sidewalks. Lansing Artificial Stone Co., J. P. Sleight, Prop.

State Journal, May 8, 1914

There is also another removal notice elsewhere in the classifieds, with the same text except that instead of offering prices on sidewalks, it says “We have full line of building material, etc. See us for right prices. Special attention given to farmer trade. Full stock on hand at office warehouse.”

109 North Cedar Street no longer exists; the site is currently a permit parking lot beside the Lansing Center. The latest reference I can find to an establishment at 109 North Cedar (though it may well not have been the same building) is from February 1967, at which time it was… any guesses? I’ll give you a moment. Time’s up, it was a car dealership, specifically England-Cook Chevrolet (subject of the famous book, Unsafe With Any Spice). The Artificial Stone Co. was certainly gone from there by March 1921, replaced by “Cooper-Ehinger Company, Builders of fine homes.” England-Cook was in residence there by 1937.

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“Sidewalk Need Cited” in Lansing Twp., 1970

Here’s a clipping I found that some helpful Newspapers.com subscriber has clipped from the May 6, 1970, State Journal. Titled “Children Endangered: Sidewalk Need Cited,” it reports on a discussion of the need for sidewalks on Brynford and Deerfield Avenues by the Lansing Township Trustees. “Trustees are concerned about a lack of sidewalks which forces children to walk in the two streets while going to and from classes at either Windermere Park Elementary or Waverly East Junior High,” according to the article. “A particular problem area, according to Frank Fitzgerald, township supervisor, is Brynford and W. Saginaw….”

I haven’t been to the blocks in question as far as I can remember, but a Google street view shows that there is no sidewalk anywhere on Deerfield Avenue. Brynford has no sidewalk on the Saginaw end, then a sidewalk suddenly picks up on the west side of the street for a while before disappearing again mid-block. Further south, a couple more disconnected bits of sidewalk briefly appear and disappear again. One of them traverses just a single lot, as though some past owner built it voluntarily and watched in disappointment as neighbors failed to follow suit.

This is all on brand for Lansing Township. While sidewalk coverage in the City of Lansing isn’t perfect, it is much more erratic in the Township. A fairly reliable way to tell that you have crossed into Lansing Township from Lansing is the disappearance of the sidewalk.

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Eastlund Concrete, Marcus St., 2022

Continuing on another block east from my last entry, I found more new Eastlund Concrete stamps at the corners of Marcus Street and South Fairview Avenue. The newly constructed curb cuts are wider and nicer than what they replaced.

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S. Magnolia Ave, Eastlund Concrete, 2022

It’s good to know the tendency to ignore the sidewalk marking ordinance hasn’t spread to everyone yet. Good old Eastlund Concrete has copiously stamped the reconstructed curb cuts on every corner of South Magnolia Avenue and Marcus Street. I’d expect no less, since they’re one of only two contractors I’ve seen stamping anything over in Albion, too. I believe that the new sidewalk here is the result of utility work in the area.

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S. Hayford Ave., curious driveway

This blog probably has the highest post-to-readership ratio out there, since I think only my husband reads it. Nevertheless, I feel like I have to start off by apologizing that this is not even slightly about sidewalks. It’s one of those tidbits I tag as “curiosities”: things around the neighborhood that make me wonder, “Now why ever was that built that way?” This one is a truly odd driveway belonging to a house on the west side of South Hayford Avenue between Marcus and Harton.

What’s odd about it is the fact that it aims straight at the front of the house. It seems a little unusual for a house in this neighborhood to have been built without a garage. Often if I check into the history of a garageless house I discover that a garage was torn down at some point, probably when it was allowed to get too derelict (as happened with the house next door to me). But even the ones without garages have their driveways sensibly located alongside the house, not running right up to the front door.

You would be forgiven for thinking it was just an abnormally wide front walk, but the placement of the driveway apron makes it clear that it is indeed intended to be the driveway. I can’t fathom what led to such a strange choice. My usual source for older photos of houses, CADL’s Belon Real Estate Collection, has nothing on this house; evidently it is one of the rare cases of a house that never changed hands during the time period the collection covers (early 1950s to early 1970s). According to the city records, the house was built in 1940.

Yep, definitely a driveway.