This one is on the west side of Parker Street just south of the corner of East Malcolm X (or is it Main Street?). It’s right around the corner from the famous Schneeberger & Koort stamp, as seen in my photo below.
Parker St., DPW, June 1923
Parker St., DPW, 1980
This is the sidewalk block at the southeast corner of Parker Street and East Malcolm X Street. I’ll call it Parker since the house at this property faces Parker.
It’s of interest for two reasons. First, I have seen two stamps on one block before, but never three (driveways excepted). I think they were trying to make it clear which park of the sidewalk they were marking out, fearing the intersection would make it ambiguous whether they had paved Parker or Main (as it was then called). And speaking of Main, here is the other reason this spot is interesting. Look at the street sign that is at this corner.
Did they forget to change the sign when Main changed its name to Malcolm X in 2010? Or did this little stub end of the street somehow escape the official name change? I’ve been to this spot before when cataloguing the famous Schneeberger & Koort stamp, the one that brought the wonder of the Bum Walks Controversy into my life, but I did not notice the sign at the time.
Hall of Shame: New sidewalk on S. Magnolia Ave.
On Wednesday evening I walked past a spot where the bed for a new sidewalk had been prepared. I hoped it would be my chance at last to see a brand spanking new stamp, hours old. Instead, I returned on Thursday evening to the disappointing sight of a completed and unstamped sidewalk. I really need to have a word with the Director of Public Service about the proliferation of scofflaw contractors.
The new sidewalk is in front of a vacant lot on the east side of South Magnolia Avenue between Michigan and Prospect. If I’m judging this correctly, this stretch of walk originally fronted a small 1914 house that was demolished in May 2021. A similar one was also demolished one lot north, in 2015, and the gap is occupied by one of the ubiquitous urban farms that serve as the Ingham County Land Bank’s favorite all-purpose hammer.
Hall of Shame: E. Grand River Ave., unsigned new sidewalk
I wanted to get a photo of a stamp in front of Westlund’s Apple Market (on the north side of East Grand River Avenue between Hayford and Foster). Unfortunately, there were no visible stamps on either the Grand River or the Foster side of the property. There was, however, a stretch of clearly new sidewalk with no stamp. For shame. Alderman McKinley is turning in his grave.
Westlund’s is celebrating its 100th anniversary this year, but it wasn’t always in this location and it wasn’t always Westlund’s. It started as Mike’s Market at on Washington Avenue downtown, then became Mike’s Shop-Rite, part of the former local consortium that also included the lost, lamented Goodrich’s Shop-Rite. Mike’s moved in here, at the edge of the Groesbeck neighborhood, in 1957. Timothy Bowman has a scan of their grand opening advertisement.
According to their page on Nextdoor.com, the transition to the new name happened when Mike Wickenhiser Jr., son of the original owner, decided to retire, and sold the business to longtime employee Gerald Westlund in 1986. Westlund continued to run the store as Mike’s until 1998, when it was renamed Westlund’s Apple Market. Gerald Westlund’s kids run it now. When I moved to town in 1999, I remember seeing circulars for Westlund’s Apple Market in my mailbox. At the time I had no idea the name was so new. I wondered then, and still don’t know, why it’s called the Apple Market.
Since Goodrich’s and the L&L Food Centers went away in the 2010s, Westlund’s is the last old-fashioned grocery store in town. They have the best potato salad in town and the third best I’ve had (after DelGrosso’s Amusement Park’s and my mom’s, in that order). They also have a spaghetti salad that always goes over well when I bring it to potlucks. I like going in there just for the old time, homey vibe, with the bonus that it’s always easy to park and easy to get in and out when I only need a few things.
E. Grand River Ave., illegible name, 2019
I found this stamp at the end of a run of newish-looking sidewalk in front of the building that includes M43 Fitness, A Cut Above hair salon, and the Urban Cup. It’s on the north side of East Grand River Avenue, essentially at the spot where Hayford would be if Hayford didn’t disappear for a couple of blocks north of Grand River before resuming.
I may have to return to this one with some foil or else materials to make a rubbing. I can almost make it out, but it’s just too shallow. I believe that it’s formatted with the date flanking the contractor’s logo on either side of vertical lines, like so: “[ 20 | illegible | 19 ]”. The illegible part looks quite brief, as though it might be initials.
I regret now that I didn’t get a picture that includes the M43 Fitness building (2225 E. Grand River Ave.). I didn’t think it was anything very special, but then I got home and did my research and found that its history was more interesting than I expected. In the City Pulse‘s New in Town column on February 15, 2018, it states that the building “has a history of being a watering hole: [owner Scott] Abramouski said the 1959 building had a soda fountain.” A search of the Lansing State Journal turns up the name of the business. It was called Glass Pharmacy. The last time I see its name connected with this address is in 1979. The last time I see it advertised at all, though without an address given, is in 1982. Starting in 1987, advertisements for “East Side Pharmacy (formerly Glass Pharmacy)” begin appearing. The last advertisement I can find for East Side Pharmacy is in 1995.
S. Fairview Ave., DPW, 1924
I had to check my records several times before satisfying myself that I hadn’t done this one before. It’s in a part of town I walk very frequently and it’s two things I always stop and photograph: a 1920s stamp and a diagonal one. Except for a crack, it’s in really nice shape, too. Somehow, I have missed it before now. It’s on the east side of South Fairview Avenue between Michigan and Prospect.
The house it’s in front of was built in 1910, so it was relatively young when the stamp was place.
Prospect St., DPW, 1926
This one is on the north side of Prospect Street between Eighth and Pennsylvania. The stamp is a clear example of the “second style” of Department of Public Works stamps. The date is much harder to read and it took me a second trip in better light before I made out enough of it to tell at least the decade. It is definitely a 1920s stamp and I am fairly confident it is 1926.
E. Kalamazoo St., chalk art
Walking on the south side of East Kalamazoo Street, between Pennsylvania and Bingham, I found a hopscotch court that someone had drawn in chalk. I was heading west, the correct direction to appreciate it, as it started with an enticement to “Have fun!” and then concluded with the valediction “Have a good day.”
I love that kids still draw hopscotch, because I love keeping folk practices alive, something kids seem especially good at. I wonder, though, whether kids still play hopscotch. While it is not uncommon for me to come across a hopscotch court on the sidewalk, I have never seen hopscotch actually being played. I wonder if kids in Lansing play the game or just draw the board, ritualistically re-enacting something they have seen older kids do. I don’t know any kids to ask.
S. Pennsylvania Ave., Illegible name, 1960
A tired-looking building that styles itself “Kalamazoo Plaza” sits at the northwest corner of East Kalamazoo Street and South Pennsylvania Avenue, and this stamp is on the Pennsylvania side of the property. In person I do think I see the faintest impression of a name above the date, but it is hopelessly illegible.
The building was built in 1960, so the sidewalk probably had work done at the same time. Currently, the west side of the building is the closed-for-good husk of a neighborhood dollar store, Dollar Palace. The east side identifies itself as Falcon Auto Traders, though it does not really look like it is doing much in the way of auto trading. Prior to Falcon moving in, it was a pharmacy, Lansing Community Health Mart, until at least 2011.
At one point the building (I don’t know which suite) was home to Capital City Typing Service, which renamed itself Quality Typing Service later on, and may also have been known as Capitol Area Typing Service. The Lansing State Journal business pages of June 30, 1985, reported,
Capital City Typing Service, 925 E. Kalamazoo St., is under new management. The new owner, president is Lois “Jane” Joehlin, who has worked in the secretarial field for over 30 years and has an associate degree in business management.
Regent St., Graffiti, October 2019
Did you miss me yet? I’m back with some graffiti, dated October 2019, from a vacant lot on the 100 block of Regent Street, between Michigan and Kalamazoo. Sorry it got a little cut off on the right. The bright sunlight made it hard for me to see what I was doing.
This is in front of a vacant lot which used to have one of the houses I thought of as “the Triplets,” three similar Dutch colonial houses in a row, all built in 1908. The Triplets were not actually identical. The one in the middle – the nearer home in this photo – has to be considered a fraternal triplet. In addition to having a different arrangement of windows in the front, it is actually quite different seen from the side. The two on either side of it were closer to identical, but were actually mirrored, judging from the arrangement of windows and placement of the front door. One of those triplets – my favorite one because it was pink – is gone, the victim of the infamous 2013 ice storm. A large tree limb fell on its roof, significantly damaging it. For a long time afterward it had a tarp laid over the hole, but after months went by and no work was done it became obvious that it was done for. It was demolished in 2015.
This lot is now owned by Dave Muylle, who owns quite a lot of that block of Regent. He also owns the middle triplet. Other Muylle properties in the vicinity include Regent Place, the Regent Arms, and the Cottage Lane project (a cluster of small homes around a common area between Regent and Leslie).