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Elvin Ct., P. Beasley, 1960

Here’s another contractor I haven’t seen before, P. Beasley. I found this one while walking up and down Elvin Court to look at people’s Christmas lights, since there are several houses still decorated there. It’s on the east side of the street, between Jerome and the dead end. (That’s all of Elvin there is. It starts at Jerome and stops abruptly where the old Armory’s grounds begin.)

I did not find anything about P. Beasley, but I have a possible lead. I found several references to W.H. Beasley and Son, general contractors, in the Lansing State Journal between 1948 and 1951. They were connected with several civic projects, including building Midway Elementary School in Holt. Could P. Beasley be the “Son” of Beasley and Son?

Sorry, only a small lights display to look at here. The good ones were all behind me. This is looking north on Elvin. The old Armory building is visible past the end of the street.

Another piece of evidence suggests so. Find A Grave shows that there is a William Hosa Beasley buried in Chapel Hill Memorial Gardens in DeWitt. The symbol on his gravestone, and the fact that he is buried in the Masonic Garden section of the cemetery, shows that he was a Freemason, which would be quite fitting for a builder, if this is our man. This W.H. Beasley died in 1951, matching the fact that I do not see any references to Beasley and Son after that date. Perhaps P. Beasley was indeed the “Son” and carried on the business in his own name after the death of his father.

That’s a tidy enough story, but there is a major problem. Whoever has entered the family history into Find A Grave has W.H. Beasley as having one son named William W. So I am inclined to say that this W.H. Beasley is indeed the contractor I read about, but I doubt that P. Beasley was his son. Find A Grave’s information could be wrong, of course, but usually these are entered by people doing family genealogy and so it is likely based on census information or another semi-reliable source.

So alas, while I have learned a bit about W.H. Beasley, I have possibly learned nothing about this specific stamp. My research so often goes that way.

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N. Holmes St., C. Gossett, 1960

It was another peaceful night of walking around looking at holiday lights, that is, until shortly after I took this photo, when I hit a patch of ice and ended up flat on my back with numb limbs and fuzzy vision. My first thought was “oh good, my camera is fine” and my second thought was “I hope I’m not hurt.” I was OK after lying on the sidewalk a little while.

Anyway, this one (on the east side of North Holmes Street between Vine and Jerome) is a C. Gossett stamp, one of the especially common stamps around the east side. You might have to take my word for that. It looked perfectly clear to me at the time but apparently the flash was too much. There is a paired one (separated by one block) but my photo of that one came out even worse. So instead, enjoy some lights.

Looking north on East Holmes. The closest house is the one with the stamp, in front of its driveway.

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N. Hayford Ave., J.A. Johnson, 1960

Here’s a first so far: two stamps on the same slab, facing opposite directions. This is on the west side of North Hayford Avenue between Fernwood and Vine.

It’s difficult to read in the photo, but based on the several others on this block of Hayford (all 1960) I know that it says J.A. Johnson.

The other end of the above slab.

I didn’t notice any other doubled up stamps on this block, even though there are several other J.A. Johnson stamps. My guess is that their practice was to stamp the beginning and end of a run of sidewalk paving, and this was a solo block so they stamped both sides. It makes sense to me, anyway.

Looking north on Hayford.

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Fernwood Ave., C. Gossett, 1960

I have cleared up the mystery regarding the initial before “Gossett” on those Regent Street stamps: it is definitely “C”. I found this very clear example on the south side of Fernwood Avenue a short distance west of the intersection of North Hayford.

C. Gossett must have been in business at least a little while, as I found a classified advertisement in the October 29, 1949, Lansing State Journal: “Building, repairs, concrete work, and basements sealed.” Unfortunately, nothing else is given besides the name and a phone number.

Looking east on Fernwood toward Hayford.

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N. Clemens Ave., T.E. Little, 1960

These stamps are on the east side of North Clemens Avenue between Jerome and Vine. There are two of them, a few slabs apart, facing in opposite directions. There is also one more that I know of on Clemens a short way south of these.

The northerly of the two stamps.
Looking south on Clemens. Sorry it’s too dark to be a very useful picture, but the above stamp is at the very bottom of the picture.

I haven’t been able to find out anything about T.E. Little. I did find a couple of references to a Mr. and Mrs. T.E. Little in The Lansing State Journal‘s society pages in the 1940s and 50s, but I can’t say if it is the same T.E. Little or not.

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N. Foster Ave., B Traverse, 1960

These two stamps are located on the east side of North Foster Avenue just north of Michigan Avenue, beside The Tattoo Shop (which is on the corner of Foster and Michigan). They are several slabs apart, facing in opposite directions.

This is the southern stamp.

There are several B Traverse stamps on this block, but I’m afraid I can’t tell you anything about B Traverse. I have found one classified advertisement from them in the October 1, 1961, Lansing State Journal, offering cement work. But my knowledge of B Traverse ends there.

This is the northern stamp.

When I first started this blog, one of my early curiosities was how they decided which direction to face the stamps. Since then I have noticed a pattern wherein if there are two stamps from the same contractor in the vicinity, they will be facing in opposite directions. I have come to realize that they probably mark the beginning and end of a stretch of pavement installed at the same time.

Looking south toward East Michigan Avenue, The stamp pictured above is a bit below and to the right of center in this photo. The brick building on the left is The Tattoo Shop.
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E. Michigan Ave., Christman, 1960

This one gives me a lot to write about, almost all of it about cars. Out in front of Feldman Chevrolet are several of these neatly-inscribed marks from The Christman Co. Builders, all dated 1960, and that got me thinking about what this stretch of pavement was like in 1960. Since I moved to Lansing in 1999 this – the corridor on either side of the US-127 overpass – has been seen as a bleak, forsaken stretch of Michigan Avenue. But in 1960 the nearby Frandor was a new, shiny, ultra-modern shopping center, instead of a vast plain of traffic and sadness fronted by a dead Sears.

Christman apparently laid this entire stretch of sidewalk alongside the dealership. Their stamp appears back-to-back like this, every few slabs.

In those days, this was Bud Kouts Chevrolet. Bud Kouts had bought the dealership in 1954, prior to which it had been called Wolverine Chevrolet. Wolverine had originally been located in downtown Lansing. Capital Gains magazine says that it moved “just after World War II,” and the Lansing property records show the current dealership office as dating to 1946, though it has been renovated into unrecognizability.

The Iding family purchased Bud Kouts in 1977, but the name must have carried a good reputation, because the Idings kept it until they sold the business in 2014 to established Detroit-area dealer Feldman. In turn Feldman branded itself as “Feldman’s Bud Kouts Chevrolet” for a few years, though that seems to have ended at some point. I notice that the business property ownership, according to Lansing records, is still in the hands of “Feldkouts LLC.”

Looking east on Michigan Avenue. This stretch of sidewalk has all been stamped at regular intervals.

So this bit of pavement was laid in what must have been a strikingly different Michigan Avenue corridor, yet in front of a business that still had many more years ahead of than behind it.

The stamps in my above photo appear on the two nearest slabs shown here.

As for Christman Co., they have done even better than Wolverine Chevy. They were established in 1894 in South Bend, Indiana and today have numerous offices in various states. Their Lansing office, still downtown, opened in 1919, though by then they had already done major projects for both MSU (then MAC) and Olds. In 1920 they built the Verlinden Street plant for Durant, later bought by GM and known formally as Lansing Car Assembly Plant #6 or colloquially, Fisher Body. The very last Oldsmobile was built there. I remember hearing about its demolition, which happened in 2007, but I was too absorbed in personal crisis to pay it as much attention as I now wish I had.

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Rumsey St., C & F, 1960

Rumsey Street is the “other Allen,” what Allen is called north of Michigan Aveue. For some reason, a lot of the streets between Clemens and Pennsylvania change names as they cross Michigan or don’t make it across at all. Things get a lot more regular from Clemens on east.

This slab is on the west side of Rumsey between Vine and Jerome. I read it as “C & F Const Co” but I can’t find any information about a business by that name in that time period. Interestingly, there are several other 1960 slabs on Rumsey but they instead come from the equally mysterious Gossett company. Encountering them on tonight’s walk did give me the chance to see some clearer examples of Gossett stamps and from them I am leaning toward “C. Gossett” rather than “O. Gossett” as the correct name.

Update 9/19/20: I can confirm that it is “C & F” as I have found several other like it (but clearer) on Fairview Avenue just north of Michigan.