This is a new contractor for me, found on the west side of South Fairview Avenue between Elizabeth and Harton, in the Urbandale neighborhood. I can’t seem to find out anything about H. Widman the contractor. There was a Harry Widman who was active in the Capitol Grange in the 1940s and 50s, but I don’t know if there is any relation.
The stamp is in front of a house with a walk-out basement, which is very unusual for the neighborhood. I don’t think I’ve seen another like it around here.
This pair of stamps is on the east side of North Magnolia Avenue between Vine and Fernwood. I’ve been striking out a lot recently on identifying contractor histories; I wasn’t able to find anything on Dumeney. It doesn’t help that there was a Gary Dumeney who served as the spokesperson for the Meridian Township Police for many years.
This stamp is on the east side of North Fairview Avenue between Fernwood and Saginaw, along with a few more like it on this block. Unfortunately, this is going to be another unsatisfying entry; I haven’t been able to turn up anything about Mel Taylor. The name is just too common to narrow down.
I’m assuming this is not the same Mel Taylor who was a manager with REO Motors in the 1950s, nor the same Mel Taylor who was a minister around the same time. I will have to leave this one unsolved for now.
This sharp and tidy Knight & Wilkinson stamp is on the east side of North Magnolia Avenue between Michigan and Vine. There are several on this block.
Unfortunately, I haven’t been able to find anything out about Knight & Wilkinson. In the process of not finding anything, I did turn up a very amusing page in the Lansing State Journal promoting the upcoming 1936 city Soap Box Derby. (It just happened to include a kid named Wilkinson.) It’s aimed at kids and includes a hilarious “how do you do, fellow kids” mix of formal diction and trying-too-hard slang. Regarding a film that entrants would receive a ticket to (“Warner Brothers’ latest smash-hit EARTHWORM TRACTOR”) it says, “Then, too, your jovial friend and another favorite of boys and girls, GUY KIBBEE has a big part… Boy! This will sure be one swell treat!”
So, I have nothing to tell you about Knight & Wilkinson, but I can illustrate the kinds of time-eating digressions I end up in while trying to do research for my entries.
I previously showed you a 1987 Don Bates stamp from out in front of the Beverly Place Apartments (which take up most of the blocks between Holmes and Clifford on the north side of Kalamazoo, across the street from Hunter Park). The same stretch of sidewalk contains this stamp from L. Ketchum. There are also a couple more of them from the same date, so possibly part of the same project, in front of the smaller Park Terrace Apartments next door to the west. The Beverly was built in 1965, and the Park Terrace in 1961. Also during the 1960s, Hunter Park was undergoing change, first getting a swimming pool and then getting some extra land as part of the morally dubious near-destruction of Stabler Park.
My best guess is that L. Ketchum is Lyle Ketchum. In the September 24, 1947 Lansing State Journal classifieds, there is this advertisement from Lyle Ketchum of Holt: “CEMENT WORK Walls, footings, floors, drives, etc.” Then I find a reference to a “Lyle Ketchum Cement Constr.” team in the Lansing State Journal‘s “Bowling Honor Roll” column of November 28, 1971. Muddying matters is that there have been multiple Lyle Ketchums in the Michigan concrete scene: I find this obituary for Lon Lyle Ketchum of Lake Odessa, which describes him as a concrete contractor, but since he died at age 63 in 2014 he could not have been the Lyle Ketchum laying concrete in 1947. That must have been his father, Lyle Ketchum Jr., 1927-1983. The family apparently continued the business in Lake Odessa until around 2013. The timing of the corporation’s dissolution in July 2013 may have had something to do with this $16,000 fine for wage and hour violations in May 2013.
I didn’t need foil after all, just different light. The stamp that had been illegible to me on a previous walk down Allen Street emerged on my walk this afternoon. Mostly, anyway; while I can tell the date is 1960s, I can’t read the last digit. This is on the east side of Allen Street on the block south of Elizabeth.
I found an obituary for Weldon P. Bowerman; he died in 2012 at the age of 90. According to the obituary, he owned and operated Bowerman Waterproofing for over 60 years and was a World War II veteran. Two of the commenters in the online guestbook speak admiringly of how well the basement work he did for them has held up, and how he dug out the basement walls by hand. His business seems to have been based in Potterville.
The 1960s were a time of transition for this neighborhood. It was the end of an era for Stabler Park, which today is an unremarkable sliver of land with a small play structure and a basketball court at the end of this block of Allen Street. (I think of it as the end of Allen Street, but Allen Street actually resumes six blocks south – just north of Potter Park – for one more lonely block.) Prior to the building of I-496, however, Stabler Park had been much larger. It was originally part of the Cameron Farm, which came to be owned by Christian E. Stabler, founder of the C.E. Stabler Coal Company. In 1930 he donated the land in honor of his son and two grandsons who had died in an accident. In the 1950s and 60s, Stabler Park hosted neighborhood carnivals, youth softball, and seasonal ice skating. In 1967, the state bought most of the park from the city to serve as right-of-way for I-496. According to the Lansing State Journal of October 31, 1967, the deed to the land had a clause which prohibited its use for anything other than a park, so the city had to pay off Stabler’s heirs to clear the title. The proceeds from the land’s sale were used to expand Hunter and Foster parks, which was given as a rationale for contradicting Stabler’s wishes. The moral of this and so many other stories like it is, never give land to a city and expect them to use it for what you intend. They will find some way to get around it.
Corrected 2/22/21: It was the city, not the state, that paid off Stabler’s heirs.
Finally I have a completely new one for you again. It’s on the west side of North Fairview Avenue between Jerome and Vine.
T.A. Forsberg, Inc. is a real estate development company based in Okemos. It was started by Terry “T.A.” Forsberg in 1950 and was originally a construction company specializing in roads and underground utilities. Terry Forsberg died in 2015. According to his obituary, Forsberg phased out of the construction business and into real estate development in the early 1990s. The current president of Forsberg is Brent Forsberg, Terry’s grandson.
I didn’t have a lot of choices again tonight, so I’m afraid all you’re getting is a very badly-lit C. Gossett stamp on the east side of Regent Street (400 block) between Kalamazoo and Elizabeth. I think that’s 1969, but I’ll have to check back in daylight to be sure.
Reviewing some previous C. Gossett entries, I notice that they were inconsistent about whether they put the date above or below the name. That’s not the most interesting observation, but it’s what I can offer.
I made a mistake in yesterday’s entry, saying that most of the E.F. Sheets stamps are in the Sparrow area north of Michigan. I had forgotten another cluster of them south of there, sprinkled around the Kalamazoo/Prospect/Bingham area. This one is on East Kalamazoo Street between Bingham and Jones. It’s difficult to read but a comparison makes it obvious that it is another E.F. Sheets stamp. What’s curious is the C marked above the name. I thought at first that it was some kind of odd mis-strike, but there are a few others nearby that have the same marking (and yet others that do not). I don’t know what it signifies.
The building it’s in front of is apparently Green Concepts Irrigation and Landscaping, not that one would know by looking at it, as there is no signage. In the 1930s and 40s it was Otto Kopietz’s grocery store. The building was constructed in 1926 and I’m not sure whether Kopietz was the original occupant; the earliest reference I can find to his grocery is from 1930, but no address is given. By 1932 he was definitely at this location and selling liquid malt according to an advertisement in the August 2 Lansing State Journal. While liquid malt can also be used in baking, I can’t help but wonder how many people were using it in home brewing.
Unfortunately, I am not able to determine when Kopietz closed up shop, nor what business was at this address in 1962. And yes, that is 1962. The typeface that some of the contractors used in the 1960s for dates is frustratingly curvy and often makes me think 6 and 9 are zero. I initially read this one as “1002” and stood there for a moment perplexed by it.
This is on the south side of Eureka Street between Virginia and Jones. I see these E.F. Sheets stamps here and there, especially in the neighborhood near Sparrow Hospital, north of Michigan. I find it curious that stamps often seem to be more common in some blocks than others.
Unfortunately, and surprisingly, I have not been able to turn up any information at all about E.F. Sheets. I welcome any information any reader may have.
