S. Fairview Ave., Don Otis, 1968

I took another walk around Urbandale this evening and made a point of walking on the tracks of removed sidewalks. (I discovered that the 700 block of Francis has the longest ex-sidewalk I’ve found yet.) But that’s not the point of this entry. No, this one is to show a name I haven’t covered yet, Don Otis. It’s on the west side of South Fairview Avenue between Elizabeth and Harton.

I wish I could tell you more about Don Otis, but all I know is that he advertised cement work in the Lansing State Journal between 1951 and 1973.

Here’s a closer look at the date in case you want to second guess me on it.

The house this one is in front of was built in 1968, the same year as this stamp. (At least, I think so, though the last digit is a little indistinct and I’m willing to entertain the idea that it’s a 1966.) That’s an unusually “new” house for the neighborhood.

S. Fairview Ave., W.P. Bowerman, undated

More Urbandale meandering today. Near the southernmost end of South Fairview Avenue, just south of the barely-existing-street known as Harton, I found this curb walk stamped by W.P. Bowerman. It’s in front of the only house on the east side of the 700 block, and near the southern end of the sidewalk there. The west side still has sidewalk to the end, at least for now. (And that’s foreshadowing of something I plan to get to soon.)

Where the sidewalk ends, South Fairview. (The stamp is nearest to the curb.)

S. Fairview Ave., H. Widman, 1960

This is a new contractor for me, found on the west side of South Fairview Avenue between Elizabeth and Harton, in the Urbandale neighborhood. I can’t seem to find out anything about H. Widman the contractor. There was a Harry Widman who was active in the Capitol Grange in the 1940s and 50s, but I don’t know if there is any relation.

The stamp is in front of a house with a walk-out basement, which is very unusual for the neighborhood. I don’t think I’ve seen another like it around here.

The stamp isn’t visible in this photo, but it’s just out of frame at the lower right.

N. Fairview Ave., Mel Taylor, 1960

This stamp is on the east side of North Fairview Avenue between Fernwood and Saginaw, along with a few more like it on this block. Unfortunately, this is going to be another unsatisfying entry; I haven’t been able to turn up anything about Mel Taylor. The name is just too common to narrow down.

I’m assuming this is not the same Mel Taylor who was a manager with REO Motors in the 1950s, nor the same Mel Taylor who was a minister around the same time. I will have to leave this one unsolved for now.

Looking south on Fairview. The stamp is bottom center.

N. Fairview Ave., Hanneman & Fineis, 2003

This is a driveway rather than a sidewalk, but I’ve diluted the purity of the blog long ago, and it’s a contractor stamp I haven’t featured yet, so here you go. It’s on the west side of North Fairview Avenue between Vine and Fernwood.

The curvature is due to an odd little jog in the sidewalk, as is apparent in the next photo.

Hanneman & Fineis Concrete Construction is based in DeWitt. According to their About Us page, they started when Carl Hanneman took over a concrete business from his father in 1953. Of course, that just makes me wonder when his father’s business started. If Hanneman merely took it over, then surely the business itself is even older? They can’t be dating it to when the business was incorporated because, according to the history given here, that happened in 1986. Hanneman’s obituary (from the December 15, 2007, Lansing State Journal; he was 85) just says he started his own business in 1953, with no reference to taking over his father’s business.

Looking south on Fairview toward the driveway in question.

In any case, Mark A. Fineis bought the business in 1988, renamed it Hanneman & Fineis, and is now the sole owner. I find myself admiring Fineis for continuing to carry on the name of the business’s founder over thirty years after it changed hands.

N. Fairview Ave., DPW, 1924

This is a beautiful 1924 Department of Public Works stamp on the west side of North Fairview Avenue between Vine and Fernwood. I’m really surprised to search the blog and find I haven’t done this one before. Back in August I mentioned it and said I would eventually come back to it. I don’t think I expected it would be this long.

1924 seems to be a common date for 1920s-era DPW stamps, though the months attached are more diverse. This stamp is about five years younger than the house it’s in front of.

N. Fairview Ave., Herb Riebow, 1953

I was delighted to find this pair of stamps on the west side of North Fairview Avenue between Fernwood and Saginaw. Why? Because they solved a previous mystery. I had found another Herb Riebow stamp on Vine Street, but was unable to fully read the last name.

The northern stamp.

Unfortunately, I can tell you little about Herb Riebow besides that he existed. The Traverse City Record-Eagle of April 10, 1947, reports that Mr. and Mrs. Herb Riebow of Lansing were in town staying with relatives, having been driven from their home by flooding. From this I infer that they must have lived near the river. The 1940 census places the Riebows in Ward 7, but I confess I don’t know where that would have been. Lansing currently has only four wards.

The southern stamp. Interestingly, they both face in the same direction, instead of opposing each other as is more usual for paired stamps.

The August 4, 1953, Lansing State Journal reports that “Herbert Riebow of Lansing was awarded a contract to install curb and gutter on S. Cedar St. in front of the new West Side grade school, and a sidewalk on the west side of S. Cedar, between Columbia and W. Ash, extending from Ash to the school, and also down the south side of Ash to connect with the existing walk.” Later in the 1950s and early 1960s, however, I find a few scattered classified ads suggesting that Riebow was now in the real estate business instead.

Looking north on Fairview with the southern stamp at lower right. The other stamp is on the next block.

Herbert S. Riebow is buried in Deckerville, having died in 1993 at the age of 84. Obituaries are often a useful source of information on people’s businesses, but they don’t seem to have run one in the Lansing State Journal and I don’t have access to the Deckerville Recorder.

N. Fairview Ave., T.A. Forsberg, 1960

Finally I have a completely new one for you again. It’s on the west side of North Fairview Avenue between Jerome and Vine.

T.A. Forsberg, Inc. is a real estate development company based in Okemos. It was started by Terry “T.A.” Forsberg in 1950 and was originally a construction company specializing in roads and underground utilities. Terry Forsberg died in 2015. According to his obituary, Forsberg phased out of the construction business and into real estate development in the early 1990s. The current president of Forsberg is Brent Forsberg, Terry’s grandson.

The stamp is on the closest block in this photo, but facing the other way. I took the photo from this direction to show off some pleasant late holiday lights in the distance. Longtime readers of this blog (hi Joseph) know that I haven’t given up seeking out lights displays on my walks.

S. Fairview Ave., Cantu & Sons, 1988

You’re probably thinking I’m about to say that due to the snow today and recently, I could only find this one stamp. But no: I probably saw at least a dozen stamps on my walk – not very many, but still enough for a reasonable selection, right?

Wrong. Every one I saw was a Cantu & Sons. And that’s really just how common they are, that a dozen random stamps on the east side have a good chance of all being theirs. Here’s one from the west side of South Fairview Avenue between Michigan and Prospect.

It’s a little hard to read, but this is one of the many stamps where they have ad hoc changed the 1987 date stamp to 1988 by drawing an 8 in.
The stamp is somewhere in that cleared stretch. You can see what I had to work with today.