It’s nice to be back in the land of milk and honey and abundant stamps. I’m struck once again by how much more common they are in Lansing than Albion. Our sidewalks are lousy with them, and I mean that in the best possible way.
This pair is on the east side of Leslie Street’s 400 block, between Kalamazoo and Elizabeth. They appear to be handwritten. Unfortunately, I have no information about Trendel.
I found this Paul Wright stamp on the east side of North Magnolia Avenue, a short distance north of Michigan. It’s only just occurred to me to observe that most contractors (based on my experience) put the date below their name, but some put the date above, as in this case.
Mr. Wright must have been at it a while, as in the April 16, 1971, Lansing State Journal classifieds, I find this advertisement: “CEMENT WORK From 6 cents a sq. ft Driveways, patios, sidewalks, etc. Ph Paul Wright, 663-4185. Free estimates.” Earlier references are uncertain. I see various advertisements from 1948 (e.g. November 29) for a Paul Wright offering to haul away rubbish and ashes, and “also trucking.” In an advertisement of December 10, 1954, close to the date of this stamp, I find Paul Wright still engaged in trucking: “PAUL WRIGHT TRUCKING Located directly north of Bancroft park on David St. Call 27123.” I am not sure whether the Paul Wright of the trucking business is the same as the cement contractor.
This is another DPS stamp, on the east side of South Clemens Avenue between Prospect and Michigan. I don’t have much to say about it. I’m trying to figure out the time period for these, but this is only the second one I’ve found.
This stamp is on the west side of the 100 block of Regent Street, next to the office building on the corner of Michigan and Regent. Unfortunately, I can’t make out the name, except that it starts with a C and ends with “lain” and is probably two words.
I’ve learned to check for a paired stamp, especially when there are legibility issues. Well, I found it a little way south, but it didn’t help. It’s just as worn and it’s also very muddy at the moment.
The building this is next to currently houses a few unmemorable offices, but I have always been rather fascinated by it because of the fact that the one-story storefront part of the building clearly surrounds and nearly hides a two-story building, likely older and possibly a fairly grand house. According to the city’s records, it was built in 1924.
When I first moved to town, a neighbor told me the building used to be a Chinese restaurant. This made sense to me as the roof on the one-story part of the building has jade tiles, but I never learned any more about it. While researching this post, however, I ran across a couple of old Lansing State Journal advertisements for the Pagoda Restaurant at this address. That, I thought, must have been the restaurant my old neighbor was referring to. Then again, was it? In a stroke of luck for me, someone on eBay is currently selling a menu from Gallagher’s Pagoda Restaurant. Dishes on offer include fried chicken, roast chicken, veal cutlets, steer liver, pork chops, grilled ham, grilled sirloin, and various seafood dishes. There isn’t the slightest hint of anything Chinese about it. Still, I would bet that a vague and understandably confused memory (or secondhand information) led my neighbor to describe the Pagoda as a Chinese restaurant.
I don’t know what was here when this was stamped in 1950, since the earliest reference I can find to the Pagoda was from 1953. On April 24, 1953, an advertisement in the Lansing State Journal promised a “KIDDIE KARNIVAL – Special Family Dinner Rates – Pogo the Clown in Person.”
I also don’t know for sure when the Pagoda closed. I found an obituary for Charles Gallagher in the December 31, 1996, Lansing State Journal; he had died on December 29 at the age of 91. According to it, “Charles may be best remembered as co-owner, with his mother, Ida, of the Pagoda Restaurant in Lansing until 1969.” That doesn’t necessarily mean that the Pagoda closed in 1969, but it is suggestive.
Update: I finally managed to read this one! It is C.D. Chamberlain.
On the east side of Regent Street between Kalamazoo and Elizabeth (500 block), this fading Henry Davis stamp sits quietly.
This stamp, and an even fainter one like it, can be found on the east side of Horton Street between Michigan and Jerome.
I can’t find out much about Henry Davis. I’ve only turned up brief ads for waterproofing and concrete work (“satisfaction guaranteed”) in The Lansing State Journal‘s classifieds from 1952 until about 1955. In 1952 the ads were for Henry Davis and Sons, but after that they were just plain Henry Davis. Perhaps the sons weren’t interested in the business after all.
The stamp is alongside the Gabriels Community Credit Union on the corner of Horton and Michigan. The credit union was originally set up to serve the nearby Catholic church, the Church of the Resurrection.
Today I took my walk at one of the magic times of day that draw out hard-to-read stamps. This stamp, on the east side of the 400 block of Regent Street (between Elizabeth and Kalamazoo), was previously so worn as to be totally illegible and almost invisible to me. But this evening the low angle of the sun made it give up its date quite clearly: 1954.
No such luck with the name, I’m afraid. It plainly starts with a J and after a space I think the next letter is an H. Past that I’m lost. I like the layout, with the smaller letters of the name forming a curve over the large, relatively ornate year.
Update 4/2/21: Now that I’ve seen another one (elsewhere on Regent), I am pretty sure this is J. Wilson.
I was surprised to notice this pair of stamps on my walk tonight because I had assumed all the stamps on this block, in front of Feldman Chevrolet (the north side of East Michigan Avenue between Lasalle Court and Detroit Street), were from the same year. These are harder to read than the others but they are presumably also Christman Co. stamps. The ones on the east end of the block are all 1960.
These are on the west end of the block and, like the others, are stamped head to head. The oddity is that these have two different dates, 1954 and 1955. Bud Kouts bought the dealership in 1954 and it continued to bear his name until the 2010s sometime.
This was taken at night with a flash, so it’s a bit washed out, but I found it interesting enough to share anyway. It can be found on the south side of Jerome Street between Clemens and Fairview. It’s very worn and craggy, and I could just make it out.
I haven’t yet run across any other Joe White slabs. Trying to find anything out about the company was rough because, well, just try Googling “Joe White.” Even in combination with “Lansing” and “concrete” I had trouble, but eventually I turned up several newspapers.com hits from the Lansing State Journal, ads from the 1950s. I don’t have a newspapers.com subscription and I haven’t yet decided whether I should get one for the sake of cataloguing sidewalk slabs, but I have the patience to pick through the OCR text and from that I have mined out this advertisement, from 1957:
“Basement Seepage Is Specialty / If you are troubled with water seepage in your basement, Joe White, 501 N. Walnut St., offers a special water-proofing service guaranteed to eliminate the seepage. Mr. White features an ‘Ever-Dry’ installation of drain tile inside the foundation and block walls which carries water seepage. He says it completely eliminates dampness and the problem of wet basements. Mr. White, who has been in the water-proofing business here for the past 14 years, has served the needs of more than 1,000 residences in the Lansing area. An average installation takes about three to four days. All work is backed by a bonded guarantee. Free estimates will be provided upon request. / Out of State Rates Are Not the Same / For Free Estimates Phone 5-5807.”
501 N. Walnut St. is several blocks north, roughly, of the Capitol building. It is still an office building, built 1907 according to the city property records. According to other ads from 1954 and 1959, Joe White Co. was located at 1208 N. Pine., which is a pleasantly old-fashioned little house, built in 1914, and not looking much like it has ever been a business location. I’m not sure how to account for the 501 Walnut address given in the 1957 ad. In 1965, the LSJ carried an ad for “Ever-Dry Co., formerly Joe White Co.” There is no longer an EverDry location in Lansing, so I don’t know what became of Joe White’s company.
One of my goals (besides finding the earliest and latest stamps I can, and I may have peaked too early on the former) is to find a stamp from as many different decades as possible. So here is an otherwise not particularly distinguished one I saw on my walk today to represent the 1950s.
Another one from the Department of Public Works, 195…7? 2? I initially thought 7, but it looks too rounded. On the other hand, there’s definitely no bottom bar to make it a 2. It’s on the east side of Shepard between Kalamazoo and Stanley Ct. (a curiously tiny, glorified alley between Shepard and Leslie).
Update 2/27/21: Based on seeing several others like this, I am now sure it’s 1952.