I took my walk at Hawk Island Park today, so there wasn’t any sidewalk for me to photograph. After leaving I thought I’d try ducking into a neighborhood I haven’t covered at all yet, and ended up driving into the Sycamore Park subdivision and parking somewhere more or less at random.

I discovered this pleasant subdivision for the first time shortly after the New Year, when my husband and I decided to drive around viewing lights for a final Christmas activity. We discovered a real wealth of lights here, and were amused by how the street names (Lindbergh, Pershing, Harding) suggested a 1920s origin, though were puzzled by seeing a lot of houses looking to be from the 50s. It must have been developed in phases, probably interrupted by the War.

Sycamore Park subdivision resulted from Col. Fred E. Shubel developing a piece of land he owned called Sycamore Farm. According to an advertisement in the July 20, 1929, Lansing State Journal, Lindbergh Drive had been established and graveled, and selection of lots by the interested would begin taking place in a few weeks. Shubel is quoted as saying, “I think it was Ex-President Harding who stressed the ideal of owning a little piece of the United States of America.” I guess he really liked Harding.

I walked a little way along Pershing Drive and was frustrated to find nothing but a lot of BBRPCI stamps from 1990. Then I walked along Shubel and found a handful of frustratingly worn stamps. I could tell they were contractors I don’t recognize, but they weren’t legible beyond a few letters here and there. It seemed as though the older sidewalk stamps were all extremely worn and faded. I almost gave up and chose an unreadable one, but then suddenly this one appeared, on the east side of Shubel Avenue between Parkdale and Pershing.

I read it at the time as “R. Boyer,” but upon looking at it more carefully via the camera’s eye, I think the second name is Royer. Unfortunately I can’t find anything about the contractor. I can find that there was a Royer family in Lansing at the time, but they were in the oil business.

The neat little house this is in front of was built in 1949, so this is probably the original sidewalk.