This stamp on the north side of Regent Street between Kalamazoo and Elizabeth (400 block) is, I believe, the newest one on the block. It appears that two slabs were done at the same time but only one was stamped. It’s another stamp using the same template as yesterday’s.
Bolle Contracting is, as the stamp says, based in Clare, a city that calls itself the “Gateway to the North.” I associate it with drives up to our rented cottage in Omena as a kid. When we got to Clare, I got excited because it started to feel like up north. Bolle’s Web site unfortunately does not give a company history. It says they offer excavating, demolition, and abatement.
Looking south on Regent Street.
Someone added a bit of graffiti, but only to the slab that had the contractor’s stamp. It’s as though they found the other one too pristine to mar.
This stamp is on the south side of East Michigan Avenue between Regent and Clemens. Isabella Corporation is based in Mount Pleasant, which is in Isabella County. Their business address is on Commerce Street. Despite the fact that I have worked in Mount Pleasant for fifteen years, I don’t know where that is without looking it up. As a commuter, I really only know the area around my workplace and a couple of places that co-workers like to gather. I think this might be the furthest out of town any of the contractors have been from, among those I could identify. Mount Pleasant, as I very well know, is around an hour’s drive away.
The stamp is in front of the building with the front ramp pictured below. It’s a big old (1916) American Foursquare house that has been converted to an office at some point. Such houses are common on this stretch of Michigan.
Looking west on Michigan Avenue at dusk. The Little Free Library and “take/leave” boxes belong to the office (a similar house) outside the frame to the left.
I’m not sure what, if anything, is in the house right now. I still think of it as “where the anarchist bookstore used to be” even though that is very long gone and was there only briefly. I have memories of walking home from the Michigan and Clemens bus stop after work, passing the Brighter Days Infoshop. I never went in there, but I remember people often seemed to be hanging around on the porch, which was open at the time. (I think it looked a lot better that way.) In my memory, this spans a greater time than in reality. In fact, I was very surprised when I discovered that Brighter Days opened in August 2003 and was closed by early July 2004. The building spent much longer as a chiropractor’s office and yet for some reason that’s not what’s lodged in my memory.
This one is on the south side of Michigan between Regent and Leslie. At some point, it appears, the plain O & M stamp got replaced with one that shows a bit more pride and, better yet, a date. I like the outline, although I miss the ampersand.
It’s right out in front of Liz’s Alteration Shop, a longtime east side business. My understanding is that Liz herself has recently retired from tailoring but still sells crafts such as masks out of the shop.
