front walk – Page 2 – Capital City Sidewalks

Posted on May 13, 2021May 13, 2023 by bunnyhugger

S. Pennsylvania Ave., Basile, undated

This stamp is on the front walk of a house on the west side of South Pennsylvania Avenue between Eureka and Prospect, the next house south from Monday’s F.N. Rounsville stamp.

I don’t recognize the contractor name and I’m not confident about it. It looks like “Basile” but there might be something worn away before that. I haven’t yet found a surefire match to the name. The best lead I have is that there is, or was, a company in Livonia called Peter A. Basile and Sons. In fact, I have just learned I am not the only person in Michigan taking photos of sidewalk stamps, as someone on Flickr has posted a photograph of a Peter A. Basile and Sons stamp in Detroit. And that led me to the very startling discovery of an entire Flickr pool of sidewalk stamps. Unfortunately, the last posting to its discussion board is someone a year ago complaining that the group admin has gone silent and it is no longer possible to get photos approved for the pool.

Looking north on Pennsylvania. The stamp is at the foot of the front walk.

Update 5/12: Based on one I found on East Michigan Avenue, this probably originally read “Bond Basile.”

Posted on May 7, 2021May 7, 2021 by bunnyhugger

Kipling Blvd., [O.]E. Porter, illegible date

Yesterday’s O.E. Porter entry reminded me that I had a stamp on my “to do” list – the ones I jot down to return to later – noted as “E. Porter.” I wondered if I had missed a leading O, or if this was a name variation or even a different company. I walked to the west side of Kipling Boulevard, between Michigan and Lasalle, to check it out.

This one is on a house’s front walk. Upon arriving I could see that it was certainly the same contractor and that the lack of the leading “O” is almost certainly just due to it being swallowed up into a pockmark in the concrete. The other one was undated; this one has a date, but it’s worn into illegibility. There really is no guessing a decade. So, sadly, I didn’t learn anything more about O.E. Porter from this visit.

A closer look to try to make out the date. It’s no good; it seems to end in an 0 but that isn’t much help. Why is it always the most important digit that seems to wear out first?

It’s on the font walk of this charming English-cottage-style house.

Posted on April 10, 2021 by bunnyhugger

Horton Ave., J.K. Spink, 1954

Today’s entry is a direct sequel to yesterday’s, as I decided to walk to the 200 block of Regent and check whether there were any Spink stamps in front of the former house of Douglas Spink, Jacob’s son. There were not, so I continued on across Michigan to Horton Avenue and revisited the stamp that originally spurred my research into Spink. The stamp is on the front walk of a house on the east side of the street between Jerome and Vine.

J.K. Spink died in 1952, and while it’s possible that the company carried his name for a while after that, I don’t see any ads like that in the 1950s Lansing State Journal. Instead I see ads from either Douglas Spink or just Spink Builders appearing by the time of this stamp. I wonder if Douglas just didn’t bother getting a new stamp for a while after taking over the business.