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Mifflin Ave., Saddest Sidewalk in Lansing?

This forlorn half a block of sidewalk is a contender for the saddest sidewalk in Lansing. I’m pretty confident in crowning it the saddest sidewalk on the east side, anyway. It’s the southernmost part of the side of Mifflin Avenue that actually has a sidewalk, which is of course the Lansing (i.e. west) side. The Lansing Township side has none.

Looking south toward the southern terminus of Mifflin Avenue’s sidewalk. The last house on this side of the block is visible, and beyond it, the Harton Street Pump Station.

The sidewalk here ends a short distance south of the last house, probably at the edge of that house’s lot. Further south from here, across Harton, is the Harton Street Pump Station. North of the last house there are two vacant lots where neighboring houses were torn down. The sidewalk is overgrown and disappearing from the start of the vacant area through to the end.

Looking north.

I nearly had my first sidewalk-blog-related injury taking these photos. Do you see what I suddenly saw as I stood there taking a photo (below) of the very last piece of concrete?

Look toward the center of the sidewalk, just past the end of it. Hint: it has three leaves.

It’s poison ivy. I thought to myself that I was lucky I hadn’t gone any further, but then suddenly I had a bad feeling and turned around to look behind me. I could see more patches of it, some of it actually over the sidewalk such that I would have had to walk through it to get where I was standing. I never had poison ivy in my life until sometime in the last decade, and then I had a bad case of it that lasted six weeks. Now I am usually more careful, but being in the city caused me to let my guard down, foolishly. I was wearing shorts and sandals, so I walked home immediately after taking these photos and scrubbed myself down with Tecnu poison ivy remover. I would have broken out by now if I was going to get it, so either I somehow obliviously dodged it like a baby crawling through a construction zone in a cartoon, or I got all the oil off before I could react.

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S. Francis Ave., Cantu & Sons, 1987

This is from the very last, sad-looking piece of sidewalk on the west side of the south end of South Francis Avenue, in the beleaguered Urbandale neighborhood. The sidewalk peters out at the southern end of the southernmost house’s lot. Unlike on the other side of the street which has had its sidewalk removed, it appears that the sidewalk may always have ended here, based on there being no trace of it in the 2007 Google Street View. The stamp looks off-center, but only because the sidewalk is sinking into the earth on the left.

Oddly, the vacant land south of here (at least part of which is occupied by an urban farm) is owned by the City of Lansing Parks and Recreation Department. A lot of parcels on the southernmost blocks of Urbandale are owned by the city or the county, but the puzzling part is what the Parks Department’s involvement is in this. I haven’t seen that in other city-owned lots. The boundary sketch of it in the city records show a fairly large piece of land that stretches way out to the west behind Foster Avenue, where it forms an L-shape around something labeled “DNR Polluted Site.” I’d like to know more about that, too.

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S. Hayford Ave., Telegraph/Fire Alarm cover revisited

I was walking past this telegraph/fire alarm utility cover on the northeast corner of South Hayford Avenue and Elizabeth Street, and I decided to try kicking dirt off it in order to read the rest of the manufacturer’s name.

It’s hard to see in the photo, but I was able to determine that the outer edge reads “Capital Casting Co., Lansing Michigan.” According to OpenCorporates, the Capital Casting Company was incorporated in 1905 and dissolved in 1986. Its registered address is given as 6869 West Grand River Avenue, which (if the numbering is the same) would be in the vicinity of the Capital Area Humane Society today. An article from the May 8, 1938, State Journal titled “Lansing has 65 little industries-from guns to automobile,” which Timothy Bowman has republished in his highly recommended local history blog, instead gives its address as 500 South Hosmer Street. Today that address belongs to Lansing Flooring Supplies, but the building is newer. A similar article on local industries from the February 4, 1973, State Journal does not mention Capital Casting.

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Prospect St., illegible name, 1952(?)

This hopelessly worn stamp is on a driveway apron on the south side of Prospect Street between Virginia and Holmes. The only part that can be made out is the date, which I am inclined to say is 1952, especially since that’s the year the house was built. I had hoped that I would be able to make something of the contractor name by tweaking the photo, but no luck. The style of the date marking is unfamiliar – it’s larger than most – so I wonder if it is a contractor I haven’t covered in the blog yet. Sadly, I’ll never know.

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Prospect St., J. DeHoney, illegible date

This is a rare stamp that I had overlooked in the past, probably because it’s on the side of Prospect Street that has no sidewalk. It’s on the apron of a driveway on the south side of Prospect, right across from where the T-intersection with Virginia is.

I can recognize the contractor’s name, J. DeHoney, based on the couple other DeHoney stamps I have found in the past, which were also on Prospect. The date is a lost cause, but based on my previous research on DeHoney, he was active in the 1950s and 60s. As noted in my previous entry, there is a classified ad in the December 14, 1951, Lansing State Journal for “CEMENT Basement floors, garage, slabs, footings and general concrete construction. Free estimates. Satisfaction assured. DeHoney and Forsberg.” At the time I wrote that entry, I did not yet recognize the name Forsberg, but now I do. DeHoney was most likely partnered with T.A. Forsberg, a big name in Lansing construction and real estate development.

The stamp is on the driveway of this 1920s house.
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Rumsey Ave., Don Plantz, 2020

Here’s a new stamp for the blog. Unfortunately I can’t tell you much about it that isn’t right there on the tin. Don Plantz Concrete, LLC, has no Web site that I can find, but OpenCorporates says it was incorporated in 2018 in East Lansing, and it seems to still be active.

This stamp is on the driveway of a house on the west side of Rumsey Avenue’s northernmost block.

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Rumsey Avenue, new unsigned sidewalk

I don’t know whether to put this one in the Hall of Shame – because it is newly installed walk that lacks the correct markings – or the Hall of Fame – because it’s newly installed walk in a place that didn’t have any before and needed it. So I’ll take the average, and leave it in the heap with the rest of the ordinary entries. It’s an extension of the sidewalk at the north end of Rumsey Avenue, on the west side of the street.

In this photo I’m facing south, and standing on the new asphalt path.

The sidewalk used to stop at the end of the street. There is a long, narrow green area that runs east-west from Marshall Street next to Lansing Catholic High School to the Don Johnson Fieldhouse, passing the dead ends of Rumsey and Ferguson. People often use it to walk their dogs. Recently, an asphalt path was added to the strip, making it a good route for bicyclists and pedestrians. This sidewalk extension connects Rumsey to the new path. I’ll be using this route to walk to my polling place soon, which is being moved to the Fieldhouse from the Pilgrim Congregational Church, where it’s been since the previous location to that, Bingham Street School, was demolished.

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Horton Ave., Department of Public Works, undated

This battle-scarred stamp is on the east side of Horton Street north of Jerome. It’s a shame there is no visible date, since it looks like an old timer.

It’s not likely that this was originally undated, because the DPW back then was very good about dating all their sidewalks. More likely the date has been completely worn away. It’s just a little surprising that there isn’t any impression to suggest where it had been.

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Dodge River Drive, BdWL, 1970

Here’s the last of the few stamps I collected while visiting the streets near the Turner Dodge House. It’s one of those mysterious BdWL stamps (I still don’t know what that stands for and will be really excited if I ever figure it out) and it’s on Dodge River Drive at the southeast corner of Black Court.

The stamp is a long younger than the house it’s in front of, which faces Black Court and was built in 1924.