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Geometric Markings, Jerome St.

Merry Christmas, dear readers, all two or three of you! Today I thought I would share something simple but puzzling. I have noticed these marks on the sidewalk in front of the big old Tudor house on Jerome Street. No, not this one, the other big old Tudor house on Jerome Street, on the northwest corner of Jerome and Horton. There are three of these geometric marks on the sidewalk in front of that house, and I don’t know what they are.

I think I have noticed markings like this in one other place on the east side (in the Prospect Place neighborhood, if I remember correctly). They seem too utilitarian and asymmetric to be purely decorative, but then, what do they do? If anyone knows or has a guess I would be interested to hear it.

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Leslie St., C. Fletcher, 1962

These handwritten stamps are a little way up the street from the handwritten C.H. Peel, but in this case I can be quite confident they are contractor’s marks from the fact that there are two of them paired on either end of a stretch of sidewalk, as a contractor would do to mark the beginning and end of the work they were responsible for. This is on the west side of the 400 block of Leslie Street between Kalamazoo and Elizabeth.

Sorry the photos are dark. I have been taking my walks at night lately to view Christmas lights, and also because it’s hard to take them during the day when the day is about ten minutes long.

In these (not very good) photos it is hard to tell that the first letter is a C, but I’ve seen it by daylight and know that it is. My usual tricks didn’t bring me any joy. I couldn’t find out anything at all about C. Fletcher.

Hard to read under the flash but there is another “C Fletcher” here on a block that has been patched to try to fix the tripping hazard. There are a lot of uneven sidewalk blocks on the east side, often with this kind of nearly useless fix applied.
The above mark is near the bottom of this photo, though not visible in the darkness.

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Leslie St., C.H. Peel, 1961

This handwritten mark is on the west side of Leslie Street’s 500 block, between Kalamazoo and Elizabeth. Is it a contractor’s mark, or graffiti? It could easily be either, but guess is the former, based on its placement.

I can’t seem to find out anything about C.H. Peel, either as a contractor or as a person, but my guess is that this is either Charles Hubert Peel or his son Charles H. Peel Jr. Both lived (and died) in Lansing according to Find A Grave, and both were plausible ages in 1961. The father lived 1907-1988 and the son lived 1932-1988. Sadly, they died close together, first Charles Jr. in May 1988 and then Charles Sr. in November that year.

Elizabeth is in view ahead; the stamp is close to the corner.

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E. Michigan Ave., Kilman Electriloc Monitoring Well Cover

This small cover is on the north side of East Michigan Avenue between Clemens and Horton, in front of the residential-looking building that houses the City Pulse office, as I wrote about previously. Around the triangle marking on it are the words “Observation – Monitoring – Well” and inside the triangle is the warning “Do not fill.” I did not actually know what it was, so I had to look it up. It turns out it is a monitoring well, used to monitor groundwater level and quality.

The company name on it is Kilman Electriloc. I can turn up several patents assigned to that company, including one from 1995 for a monitoring well cover. OpenCorporates indicates that Kilman Electriloc of Cumming, Georgia, dissolved as a corporation in 2011. There is, however, also a still-active record for Kilman Bros. in nearby Grayson, Georgia. Kilman Bros. is engaged in the business of well drilling, among other things. I assume there is a relationship, at least a familial one.

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S. Clemens Ave., East Jordan Iron Works manhole cover

This is a rather plain East Jordan Iron Works manhole cover, at a property on the west side of South Clemens Avenue between Prospect and Michigan. What’s odd about it, and piqued my interest, is that it’s situated within someone’s front walk. In fact, the walk seems to widen there to accommodate it.

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Elvin Ct., end of the sidewalk

File this under “curiosities.” This is the northern terminus of the sidewalk on the east side of Elvin Court. Ahead is the Armory.

What makes this a curiosity is that the sidewalk ends mid-lot without any apparent reasoning behind it. On the west side, the sidewalk ends at the end of the last house’s lot, providing a de facto path into the Armory grounds. Here, though, it ends in front of the house, but not at the front door (which is on the south side of the house). Why did they say “this far, and no farther”? Usually if a sidewalk doesn’t go to the end of the block, it ends at someone’s front walk.

There is another curiosity on Elvin Court, which it shares with Horton Street one block east. The street numbers on the northernmost end go up to 253 instead of topping out at 237 which is normal for a Lansing block. This is a consequence of the fact that the 200 block actually extends past Vine Street, which is usually the border between the 200 and 300 block. Although Vine doesn’t cross Elvin, the invisible extended line of absent cross streets is still usually taken to demarcate blocks and the house numbers change accordingly. But on Elvin and Horton, the 200 block continues north of this invisible line. If one were to walk due east from Horton’s 200 block, one would end up on the 300 block of Clemens. Most of the house numbering in Lansing is so satisfyingly orderly that I’m always a bit affronted when I find the odd exceptions.

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Allen St., J. Carter, 1985

I’m surprised I hadn’t noticed this one before. It’s the only J. Carter stamp I have found besides the cluster of them on Michigan Avenue near Sparrow. It’s on the east side of Allen Street between Kalamazoo and Marcus, on the west side of the Neogen building (the former Allen Street School).

There’s a bonus McNeilly stamp in there for you too.
Looking toward Kalamazoo Street. I pass a lot of dog walkers around the neighborhood on my evening walks.

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S. Washington St. (Mt. Pleasant) Snow Melt System

This is another Mount Pleasant digression, an advertisement of the heated sidewalk in front of Anspach Hall on Central Michigan University’s campus, on the east side of South Washington Street between Library Drive and Ottawa Court. I see this stamp all the time on my way in and out from work, and I like the look of the typeface. It’s a very 1970s font, although I believe this was installed during Anspach’s renovation in the 2010s.

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Hall of Shame: N. Fairview Ave.

Another disappointment, I’m afraid, though at least I aimed the photo to show you some of the Christmas lights I get to enjoy on my walks. These brand new sidewalk blocks are on North Fairview Avenue, at the southwest corner of Fairview and Vine. I passed by here several days ago when the new sidewalk was under a tarp, presumably curing, so I made a point to go back in case I got to see a brand new stamp. I didn’t have high hopes, though. Almost none of the new sidewalk construction I have seen this year has been stamped, with the exception of the Leavitt & Starck sidewalk alongside Allen Place.

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Hall of Shame: Allen Place Project

The sidewalk in front of the Allen Place project (on the north side of East Kalamazoo Street between Shepard and Allen) continues to develop, and (as threatened in a previous entry) I think I can now formally induct it into the Hall of Shame. There is no sign any of the new sidewalk is going to be stamped, despite it being required by ordinance in Lansing. What would Alderman McKinley say?

I’m curious about the new jog in the sidewalk. It was previously a straight path here. I wonder what the swerve’s purpose is. I suppose I’ll find out soon enough.