clemens – Page 2 – Capital City Sidewalks

Posted on June 10, 2021June 10, 2021 by bunnyhugger

Hall of Shame: new sidewalk behind Eastern HS

This stretch of sidewalk is new, but unstamped and undated, which is why it has been filed under “Hall of Shame.” The fact that it is not adjoining a public street probably exempts it from the city’s code on sidewalk marking, but I wanted to catalogue it for the historical value of recording when it was created.

It branches off from the previously-existing sidewalk behind Eastern High School and the Armory, heading to the east along the edge of the Eastern grounds, eventually meeting up with Saginaw. It passes by a small sidewalk that cuts over to North Clemens Avenue at Fernwood Street. That sidewalk has been torn out (don’t worry, it had no stamps on it; I had checked in the past). My understanding is that it will be reconstructed to serve as part of the East Side Connector, a bicycle route between the east side to downtown.

The north end of the new path. The dirt area is where the old sidewalk from Clemens was removed (it heads left/east from here, through the fence) and I am standing on the asphalt path that continues north.

The sidewalk stops at the point where the link to Clemens was (and will be) and past that the path becomes asphalt. I don’t know, but I am guessing that this is the point when it becomes part of the East Side Connector.

Posted on June 1, 2021June 6, 2021 by bunnyhugger

N. Clemens Ave., Ed [B]rackins, undated

I found this one in a driveway on the east side of North Clemens Avenue between Fernwood and Saginaw. I took it to read “Ed Crackins,” but looking at the photo at home, I was bugged by the fact that it really looks much more like “Drackins.” When I zoom in on it, the dubious letter resembles the “D” of “ED” more than the “C” of “-RACKINS.” The trouble is that “Drackins” is a less likely name and I can’t find a reference to an Ed Drackins or any other Drackins in Michigan.

I can find three classified ads (in 1959, 1967, and 1971) from Ed Crackins for basement floors and driveways, so that inclines me back to my initial judgment. There is a little bit of uncertainty because I am relying on Newspapers.com’s OCR scans and they often contain errors, especially in the fine print of the classifieds. (After all this time I am still too stingy to pay them for an actual subscription that would allow me to view the original pages.)

Looking south on North Clemens. The stamp is quite small, in the lower right corner of the upper driveway.

Updated 6/5/21: I now realize the name is Ed Brackins.

Posted on May 31, 2021March 15, 2022 by bunnyhugger

N. Clemens Ave., [T.Q.?] [T.D.] Jones, 1946

This stamp is on a driveway apron on the west side of North Clemens Avenue between Vine and Fernwood. The last name is clearly Jones, but I am not entirely confident about what precedes that. It looks like “T.Q.” or at least “something Q” or maybe “something O.”

Unfortunately, with such a common name it is usually very difficult to figure out anything about the contractor, and this is not an exception. I haven’t been able to find anything about a cement contractor named Jones operating in that time period.

The stamp is on the near end of the driveway apron, oriented to face the street.

Update 3/14/22: I saw this in better light the other day and I am now pretty sure it’s T.D. Jones. Still no luck figuring out who that is.

Posted on May 27, 2021 by bunnyhugger

S. Clemens Ave., Smiley Face, undated

This neatly-rendered smiley face often adds a note of whimsy to my walks. It is on the east side of South Clemens Avenue between Michigan and Prospect.

The smile welcomes visitors to the front walk of this house.

Posted on March 21, 2021 by bunnyhugger

N. Clemens Ave., DPW, 1919 (?)

Here is an extremely worn Department of Public Works stamp from the east side of North Clemens Avenue between Vine and Fernwood. It caught my eye because the date appears to be from the teens, making it among the oldest DPW stamps I have catalogued. That penultimate digit sure looks like a one, anyway, though it’s strange that I don’t see a spot for a month. As far as I have seen, they used a month stamp through at least 1924. It might be worn away, but it’s less likely given that the year is nearly centered.

The last digit is harder to read. I took it to be a nine when I saw it in person, though on closer look at the photograph it might actually be an eight.

Posted on March 20, 2021 by bunnyhugger

N. Clemens Ave., E. Harmon, 1980

This stamp is on the west side of North Clemens Avenue, at the intersection of Fernwood. The date is a little hard to read in the photos but I believe it is 1980.

I haven’t been able to find anything out about E. Harmon. My best lead is an obituary for Earl Harmon, Jr. of Lansing, who died in 2018 at the age of 75. It says “He was is (sic) concrete construction having started and being a partner of M & M Concrete in Charlotte.” Maybe he stamped things under his own name before forming M & M. Unfortunately, that’s all I have on this one.

Posted on March 16, 2021March 16, 2021 by bunnyhugger

N. Clemens Ave., Bay(?), 1996

I am very inclined to believe that this stamp – on the west side of North Clemens Avenue between Jerome and Vine – is from the same contractor responsible for one of the blog’s early mysteries, the odd string of letters and numbers I first found on Kalamazoo Street and then later encountered versions of in a few different places. The first one looks a bit like “DAY02” but with no spacing and odd-looking characters I wasn’t sure it was a name and date or just a code of some kind. If this is the same contractor, then this is proof that is a name and date.

The case is still not settled. The first one I found had a pretty unambiguous D as the first letter. But then a later one, which otherwise bears a strong similarity to the first, is definitely a B (“BAY03”). A third one looks like it is readable either as a D or a B.

And what about this one? The style is very different from those odd mystery stamps, but the “D/BAY” and two-digit date makes it hard to resist making a connection between them. The (regrettably faint) first letter first appeared to me as a D, but on closer inspection, looks to be a B after all, and that’s what I will go with. I believe there is another one like this on Fairview, but it’s as faint or fainter. I will have to get a look at both of them at a few different times of day and see if my appraisal changes.

Posted on March 15, 2021March 15, 2021 by bunnyhugger

S. Clemens Ave., BWL, 1987

Here’s an unusual BWL (Board of Water and Light, or so I assume) variation on the west side of South Clemens Avenue between Prospect and Kalamazoo. The rounded, almost handwritten-looking font of other BWL stamps is replaced by smaller, typewriter-like letters. There also seem to be periods this time. One thing that hasn’t changed is the unique BWL custom of stamping the name in one corner and the date in the other.

I initially thought the date was 1997, but when I got down to look at it more closely it appeared to be 1987 as the bottom loop of that third number appears to come all the way up. It’s pretty hard to tell the 8 from the 9 in this font (a recurring problem with sidewalk stamps that use nearly symmetrical rounded numbers) but I am tentatively sticking with 8. If you think I’m wrong I’d be happy to hear another opinion.

Closeup of the date. I had to scrape some dirt off to get the last number.

Posted on March 12, 2021March 12, 2021 by bunnyhugger

N. Clemens Ave., Concrete by Thompson, 2001

This single stamp on the west side of North Clemens Avenue between Vine and Fernwood is the only one I have found from this contractor so far. Although it’s from 2001, the style of the stamp resembles the style of several of the oldest stamps such as W.H. McKrill, V.D. Minnis, and yesterday’s F.H. Rounsville. Another more recent contractor who uses this style is Able. It’s an appealing look and I appreciate the retro-ness of it.

Concrete by Thompson (as that seems to be their formal name) is, or was, located on Armstrong Road in Lansing, which is on the south side in the Jolly/Pennsylvania area.

Posted on March 10, 2021 by bunnyhugger

N. Clemens Ave., G.R. Montague, 1934

It turns out that the 300-600 blocks of North Clemens Avenue are a trove of contractor stamps I haven’t featured yet. I jotted down several on my last walk up that way and returned for one of them today, on the east side between Fernwood and Saginaw. It was my first walk of the year with no coat, since was in the mid-sixties outside. One house I passed had its entire front yard covered with crocus flowers, and a few bees were making the rounds. It was amazing and a bit unsettling to see this early in March.

So here is the stamp, the only one of its kind I have found so far. Unfortunately, I haven’t been able to turn up any information about G.R. Montague. Nothing is showing up in old Lansing State Journals. My next approach if the stamp includes a person’s name is usually to start checking Find A Grave, but FindAGrave.com has been down all evening. I’ll try again tomorrow.