This one is on the south side of Bement Street between Jones and Holmes and it’s an old-timer, though it’s hard to be sure of the year. When I first saw it I thought it read 1914, which would have been the earliest Department of Public Works stamp I’d found. When I got back there to photograph it, it was in wetter conditions, and I think they made the date more legible and unfortunately revealed it to probably be 1918. It’s probably either that or 1916, but I favor 1918. Anyway, it’s quite an old one. Ones that include a month are, in my experience, always from 1924 or earlier.
The placement is a bit nontraditional. Usually the DPW stamps the month and date underneath the name, rather than side by side like this.
This one is on the apron of a driveway on the west side of North Fairview Avenue between Vine and Fernwood. It’s stamped diagonally on the south corner of the apron, facing the sidewalk so pedestrians can admire it. I am mildly curious what circumstances result in the city having to construct (or more likely reconstruct) someone’s driveway apron. I’m guessing it happens when they have to tear up for sewer work, for instance.
An overview of the driveway apron. There is also an Ayala’s stamp on the other side, but Ayala’s chose to have it face the street instead.
This rugged and worn stamp from the north side of Larned Street between Jones and Holmes seems hopelessly illegible at first blush. A comparison with other stamps, however, reveals that it is probably a William Meister stamp from 1921.
Looking west on Larned Street. This stamp is close to the corner of South Holmes.
Here is a mystery from the west side of Rumsey Avenue between Jerome and Vine, in the Eastfield neighborhood. The name is illegible but the layout looks like it might be an arch. I don’t recognize the style as matching one of the usual suspects, and it’s also placed strangely, close to vertically centered, but off on the right side of the block.
Looking north on Rumsey, with the stamp bottom right.
Yes, it looks like several Minnis & Ewer stamps I’ve done before, but this one is new, I promise. It’s on the east side of South Pennsylvania Avenue between Prospect and Kalamazoo. There are a lot of Minnis and Ewer stamps with the same date (8-10) in this vicinity.
The northern stamp of the pair.
Actually, there are a pair of them, roughly on either end of a residential lot. At the moment they are copiously decorated with mulberries that have fallen from a tree that shadows the sidewalk.
It’s not clear whether this stamp on the west side of Shepard Street (south of Elizabeth, before the I-496 dead end) is a contractor’s mark or graffiti. It’s done so crudely that I’d be inclined to say graffiti, except that it reminds me of this handwritten L. Miller stamp, which I have reason to believe is a contractor’s mark. The last name is definitely Wagner. The first name is rather obscure but might be Dan or Dave.
I can’t find anything about a contractor named Wagner working in the area in the right sort of time period, so if this is a contractor’s stamp it’s a mysterious one.
Looking north on Shepard Street, with Elizabeth Street in view.
Recently my husband showed me a picture of this stamp, which he encountered on a walk. At first I thought it was the one on Bingham, which I had already covered, but when he said it was on Prospect Street, I set out to find it. It turned out to be a new one to me, mainly because it’s west of Pennsylvania and I rarely cross Pennsylvania on my walks. I had not walked past Eighth on Prospect before, and this stamp is on the south side of Prospect between Eighth and Hosmer.
It’s interesting to notice that the spacing of the date differs between this stamp and my previous J.P. Sleight 1908 stamp. Did they stamp each digit separately, or have two noticeably different date stamps?
This is a view west on Prospect. The stamp is too distant to make out, but it’s in front of the nearest visible house.
This walk is in good condition, the best of the J.P. Sleight walks I’ve found, so I hope it will remain here even if Mayor Schor is re-elected and fixes the sidewalks as promised.
This barely-visible stamp is on the east side of South Francis Avenue between Michigan and Prospect. Although it’s not much to look at, I thought I would record it because I haven’t collected many from Francis and because it’s not going to be legible much longer. It’s just possible to make it out as a T.A. Forsberg stamp from 1962, and only because I can compare it to other Forsbergs I’ve seen.
Facing south on Francis, with the stamp on the nearest sidewalk block.
Here is a newer stamp from the city’s Operations and Maintenance Department. It’s on the south side of East Michigan Avenue between Leslie and Regent. The stamp is in front of Heartdance Studio, which hosts dance and yoga classes. I still think of it as “the scuba store,” though.
That’s because when I moved to town it was ZZ Underwater World, who apparently figured that the beginning of the alphabet was too crowded in the Yellow Pages. They were the reason for the mural of dolphins on the second floor. The dolphin mural disappeared for a while around the time Heartdance moved in, but then it reappeared. Whether it was covered and then uncovered, or is on a board that got taken down and put back up again, I don’t know. However it came to be, the dolphins have been back for a long time and serve to remind me of the former occupants of the building every time I see them.
The building was constructed in 1942, making it young for this stretch of the Avenue. In the 1950s and 60s it was Bendlin’s Shoe Clinic. The proprietor, John Bendlin, also lived at this address (above the shop, I assume) with his wife. By 1978 it was home to Michigan Divers Supply. I’m not sure if ZZ Underwater World was just a renaming of this business or a new business. ZZ Underwater World closed in 2013 according to the business that bought their assets, Capital City Scuba in Old Town, but Google Street View reveals that Heartdance had already moved into this building as of June 2011.
This “second style” Department of Public Works stamp is on the north side of East Saginaw Street between Maryland and Marshall (closer to Maryland), in front of Marshall Park. My husband and I walked to the park tonight because I heard that the city fireworks can be seen from there (pretty well, it turns out).
Looking east on East Saginaw with the stamp centered above the nearest sidewalk crack. The sparkles near the center of the sky are amateur fireworks going off in the distance.
