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New update schedule

I mentioned in my (late) anniversary post that I was thinking of changing my update schedule. This post is to announce that I am following through with that and this will mark the end of daily updates, a schedule I maintained without exception for over a year. During that time I posted at least once a day. Every day I had a sidewalk stamp or other sidewalk feature except for a scant few times when snow made it impossible to find anything. It’s hard to give up a habit so solidified, but I have to admit it is time. As regular readers will have noticed, it has become difficult for me to find stamps from contractors that haven’t already been thoroughly covered in the blog on my daily walks. (It hasn’t helped that the recent heat waves forced me to walk after dark, which limits where I can walk and how many stamps are illuminated.) I would rather update less frequently than subject you to five Cantu & Sons stamps each week.

The other issue is that in-person work has begun for me again, increasing my weekly commute from zero to eight hours. I will have less time for blogging, and my daily walks – a habit that previously intertwined with my blogging habit – will often be in the city where I work instead of in Lansing.

Previously I also had a rule that a stamp I posted had to have been captured that day. I never broke this rule, even though it sometimes meant choosing the best of several good stamps I saw on a walk and throwing the rest of the photos away to force myself to go back for the others later. A few times this caused me to temporarily lose track of where I saw one, and I had frustrating moments walking back to where I thought one was only to be unable to find it. In the future I will try to stick to stamps photographed as recently as possible, but I won’t totally bar myself from banking photos anymore.

I am planning to try doing an update schedule of three times a week, and see how that goes. I haven’t decided which days yet and may need to experiment with that a little while before settling on it. Thanks to everyone (anyone?) who has actually been reading so far.

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Allen St., DPW, 1933

Although it’s just about illegible, I am fairly sure this is a Lansing DPW stamp. I read the date as 1933, but 1938 is a possibility too. It’s on the west side of Allen Street between Michigan and Prospect.

Looking southwest on Allen with the stamp facing the other way on the closest slab. Not pictured: the two or three houses nearby that still have Christmas lights up. (I’m not complaining.)

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E. Michigan Ave., L & L, 2000

This stamp is on a driveway on the north side of East Michigan Avenue between Leslie and Horton. It’s what I call a ghost driveway; the house it belonged to was demolished sometime between 2008 and 2011, along with another one next door. It was one of those old houses-turned-businesses that line so much of the Avenue here. The city has an account for a business called “Digital Photo Magic” at this address, indicating delinquent taxes for 1999 and 2000, so they may have been here when this stamp was made. I can’t find much else about the history of the house except that in the 1950s and early ’60s it was home to a real estate agency called Brennan Realty Co.

The sky had an impressive thunderhead in it, off in the distance to the north, and it was crackling with beautiful heat lightning. I’m sorry that doesn’t come through in the photo, but maybe you can add it with your imagination to get a sense of the mood.

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E. Kalamazoo St., Graffiti, 1995?

There is a large and somewhat mysterious vacant lot on the northeast corner of East Kalamazoo Street and South Foster Avenue. The Kalamazoo side of it is lined with a row of handsome evergreens, and that’s where you can find this series of three graffiti-covered blocks. I assume the number on one of them represents a date, ’95, but I can’t be sure. They are facing sideways from the perspective of a pedestrian, as though meant to be read by the evergreens. Here they are, presented from east to west.

I guess Woz had a lot of free time in the 1990s.
Mondo Pavement is one of the least remembered of the mondo films.
Looking east, along the row of trees that unnecessarily screen an empty plot of grass from Kalamazoo traffic. There must be a story here.
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Regent St., Cantu & Sons, 1988(?)

This stamp is on the west side of Regent Street just about midway between Kalamazoo and Elizabeth. It’s in front of the same house as this J. Wilson stamp. The house itself is a cute little Dutch colonial. A decade-plus ago, I had to have part of my chimney rebuilt, and the mason who did it lived in this house. He said, “You know I’ll do a good job because I’ll have to look at it.” In fact, he did do a really nice job.

The stamp isn’t visible in this picture, but it’s more or less centered in front of the house.

The date appeared to be 1988 when I raked it with my flashlight beam, but now that I look at the photo it seems more like 1987. I will have to look at it in daylight next chance I get.

This is apparently the guardian of the stamp, as he walked up and stood on it while I tried to take a photo, meowing very loudly.

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N. Fairview Ave., illegible name, 1929

I picked up this one on a driveway apron on the west side of North Fairview Avenue between Vine and Fernwood. I can’t resist a 1920s stamp, even if they are much more common than I originally thought when I started the blog.

Unfortunately, while I can read the date fine, the name is deep but obscure. It looks to end with -ER, possibly -MMER or -NNER, but I can’t figure anything else out. Normally a driveway apron stamp of this age would likely be Lansing DPW, but what I can make out of this one does not match that. I tried using a flashlight to cast a raking light across it, which sometimes helps, but it didn’t do any good this time. Maybe next time I see it in daylight I’ll be luckier.

Looking south on Fairview. The stamp is on the driveway apron, bottom of the photo just right of center.

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E. Michigan Ave., Able, 1999

This garden variety Able stamp is on the north side of East Michigan Avenue between Horton and Clemens, in front of the Capitol Macintosh/Lansing Central AA building. This is a couple of doors east of the City Pulse building and their respective Able stamps are probably siblings.

This isn’t related to the stamp, but I have a fun story about Capitol Mac. A couple of years ago my elderly MacBook was having issues with the touchpad. I’d had some unpleasant experiences with Capitol Mac, but I felt guilty going to the Apple Store instead of supporting a local business, so I thought I would give them one more chance and dropped my computer off with them. A few days later they called to say that they had a break-in and one of the things stolen was my MacBook. I got paid $300 (the value of my aged computer) and then proceeded to go through way more than $300 worth of grief trying to put my digital life back in order. The rest of that story also involves a really bad experience with the Apple Store, so no one comes out smelling like roses in this. But that’s enough about that. Back to this spot on Michigan Avenue.

Facing northeast. I think the stamp is on the bottom edge of the photo, on the nearest partial block, though it’s not possible to make it out.

This is another instance of a storefront built in front of an old house, common on this stretch of Michigan. The house, as far as can be seen, is a large and handsome Victorian. According to the city’s parcel records, it was built in 1889. The records claim that the office space was also built in 1889, but I find that hard to believe.

Capitol Macintosh moved in here sometime in the 2000s, having previously been located in Frandor under the name Eubulus. Around that time the office building, previously a plain box, had a cosmetic overhaul, giving it a gabled entrance and faux gables on the sides, as well as eyebrow details over the side windows. These elements were chosen to match the house, albeit in an amusement-park sort of way.

A search through the [Lansing] State Journal turns up (ready for it?) two car dealers previously at this address, Stratton Sports Cars (October 1, 1961) and Precision Imports (July 1, 1969). Ads throughout 1980 offered the space for a beauty parlor, implying it was set up as one in the 1970s sometime. I also see from some mentions in the social pages that it was the residence of Mr. and Mrs. Charles Horn in the 1950s. Most interesting to me is that on November 27, 1926, there is an advertisement for Faggion Plumbing and Heating at this address. I previously wrote about Mundo Faggion Plumbing and Heating as the former occupant of the Mercy Ambulance building, but Mr. Faggion’s obituary claimed that his business was founded in 1929. Either that date is incorrect or they are not the same business, although surely they are at least related.

The city’s records have (undated) accounts for a few other businesses using the address: Tax Lien Inspection Company, First Hand Impressions, Advanced Computer, and Creative Touch Hair & Nails Design.

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Regent St., Cantu & Sons, 1987

Nothing much to bring you tonight, so here’s another one of the usual Regent Street suspects, this one on the east side of the 400 block, between Kalamazoo and Elizabeth. It does occur to me that it’s odd that there are both 1987 and 1988 stamps from Cantu on the same blocks. I have been assuming that there was a big, mass sidewalk replacement project that Cantu got the contract for, and that it took them more than one year to do it. I would have thought they would do one block or street at a time, however, and that all the ones in one area would be the same year. Instead the ’87s and a couple of different styles of ’88s are intermixed.

Looking north on Regent, with one of the nice street trees watching over the stamp.

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E. Michigan Ave., “Bill” graffiti, 2006

This small, almost modest bit of graffiti is in front of Bill Leech’s Repair Service on the north side of East Michigan Avenue between Clemens and Fairview. I am going to assume that Mr. Leech himself did this, absent evidence to the contrary.

Bill Leech’s Web site unfortunately does not give a history of the company and I can’t find much about them searching the Lansing State Journal. They have certainly been located here since before I moved to the city in 1999, and Open Corporates gives their incorporation date as October 19, 1983 (under the name Bill’s Appliance Service Center, Inc).

The stamp in context, in the corner of the block below the pot of Coleus plants and lamp post.

I really like the midcentury look of the storefront with its stone siding and angled doorway. According to the city’s parcel records, it was built in 1950. Prior to that, in the 1940s, there was… any guesses? Anyone? Yes, you are correct: there was a car dealer here, Ron LeButt Auto Sales. I first see an ad for Modern TV Center in the October 12, 1954, State Journal. The latest ad for Modern TV that I can find ran on August 1, 1970.