I took this in the morning (the other morning, the one you might call “yesterday morning” if you have subsequently slept) before a day at Cedar Point. It’s on the east side of Regent Street’s 400 block, between Kalamazoo and Michigan.
We got into automotive shenanigans on the way home that will probably be funny to retell someday, but that day isn’t today and I’m not awake enough in any case. OK, one tidbit: I ended up walking home from the US-127 exit at Kalmazoo through two-foot-plus deep water at 3:30 am and then getting sprayed by a skunk.
In case you don’t know what the 400 block of Regent looks like yet.
This is on the east side of Regent Street’s 300 block, between Michigan and Kalamazoo. Yeah, yeah, it’s the most dirt-standard catalogue entry. I posted three times yesterday, I figure I can coast for a couple of days. I can’t quite bring myself to give up daily posting yet.
It’s one of the ones (they are numerous) that has the 7 changed to an 8.
The stamp in context in front of someone’s front walk, facing northeast.
My day was just packed, and I had to take my walk late at night, so you’ll have to make do with this 1987 Cantu & Sons stamp from the east side of Regent Street’s 400 block, between Kalamazoo and Elizabeth. It’s out in front of a tiny, cute 1916 bungalow that regrettably snugs right up against the parking lot of the business formerly known as Lucky’s. Unfortunately it was too dark to get a context photo.
After I did a stamp in front of Mercy Ambulance, I figured I would follow up by doing one in front of the Medical Arts Building one block east, on the south side of East Michigan Avenue between Ferguson and Holmes. As with Mercy Ambulance, there is something about the starkly modern building that appeals to me. In this case, the oversized caduceus on the front face, though a controversial choice, is certainly a large part of the charm.
I hadn’t realized that this building is owned by Sparrow Hospital, though I wasn’t very surprised to learn it, either. This whole area of downtown Lansing is the land of Sparrow Hospital, and it continues to spread. A clipping from the October 25, 1963, State Journal (courtesy of fellow local history enthusiast Timothy Bowman and his very useful Flickr site) has a photograph of it with a caption saying it “is expected to be completed this week.” (The city’s property records give a construction date of 1964.) The caption goes on to say “It is the largest building of its kind in the Lansing area.” In the photograph it looks just as it does now (minus some rust stains), proving the vintage of the giant caduceus, if there were any doubt. It does not appear to have been a Sparrow property at the start. I’m not sure when Sparrow acquired it.
Looking southwest at the Medical Arts Building. The stamp is located just past the tree whose branch can be seen on the right.
The stamp is from BBRPCI, who have stamped quite a lot of sidewalk on this part of Michigan Avenue. I was hoping to find a stamp contemporary to the building, but no such luck. There are a few blocks of especially coarse concrete that look different from and older than most of the surrounding sidewalk, so maybe those are remnants of the original construction.
Looking west on Michigan. The stamp is on the lower left block, facing the other way. Note the two coarser blocks left and right of center.
I found this nice example of an E.R. Premoe stamp, and a less nice amount of broken glass, on the sidewalk on the east side of Leslie Street between Elizabeth and the dead end above I-496.
The stamp is in front of a vacant lot. The house on the lot was demolished in 2014.
I like a good, deep stamp like this one, as they’re more likely to stick around for some future sidewalk stamp cataloguer. They also just look nicer. The subdued illumination of the street light made some nice shadows on it.
This stamp is in front of the vacant former Wright & Filippis building on the south side of Michigan Avenue, between Clifford and Lathrop.
I ran across this date without a name on the south side of East Michigan Avenue between Ferguson and Clifford. The placement of the date at the lower right is reminiscent of a BWL stamp, but they usually stamp their name at the lower left. I don’t see any remnants of a name at the lower left corner, but it’s worn, so I can’t rule it out.
I had a very busy and exhausting day (and have two more ahead of me) so this one is a placeholder. I mean, this one is for the planned Regent Street Catalog Project. The stamps are a pair on the west side of Regent Street between Kalamazoo and Elizabeth, on the 400 block. They are alongside the Auto Surgeon on the corner of Kalamazoo and Regent.
This is the northern stamp of the presumed pair.
The northern stamp is on the nearest full block in this picture.
An awful housefire happened the day before yesterday, on the west side of Horton Street between Michigan and Jerome (125 Horton). The family lost four pets and all their possessions, and the house was ruined. I walked past it today and it had already been demolished. It was a nice old house, built in 1914. The whole business is very sad.
The southern stamp, barely legible in the mud. (It was raining.)
To mark the end of the house’s time in the neighborhood, I collected the only stamps from the sidewalk out front. They are both Cantu & Sons, probably a pair. The southern stamp is undated. The northern stamp may have been dated originally; it’s hard to tell because of how worn it is. I have seen Cantu stamps in this style from 1986 and ’87, so this likely dates from around then.
The northern stamp is easier to read but does not appear to have been dated.
This stamp is on the west side of Mifflin Avenue between Michigan and Prospect. It could only be on the west side; the east side of Mifflin Avenue has no sidewalk, even though there are residences on both sides. There is (I believe) a clear explanation for this: the border between the city of Lansing and Lansing Township runs down the center of the street. I have observed that Lansing typically installs a sidewalk on any block that has residences. Lansing Township is largely uninterested in sidewalks.
Mifflin Avenue doesn’t serve as the shining example of Lansing sidewalk superiority that this would suggest. The sidewalk on Mifflin is awful, some of the worst I’ve found on the east side. Many slabs have subsided far enough to be partially or fully covered in a layer of mud and weeds. Many are crumbled. Walking from Kalamazoo to Michigan, I noticed that all the stamps were Cantu 1987 marks like this one. Notably, that suggests little or no sidewalk work has happened on this block since 1987. It shows.
Looking north on Mifflin Avenue. This is actually the best stretch of sidewalk on the block. I should have faced the other way.
