This is the next house east from my last entry, also on the south side of Prospect between Clifford and Lathrop, also on the driveway apron. It would be nice to think that perhaps they were doing all the driveways around this time and therefore I could date the eternally undateable William Haskins, but sadly I find it doubtful. The style of the Haskins stamps just doesn’t suggest 1980s to me.
Here’s a nice William Haskins stamp from a driveway apron on the south side of Prospect between Clifford and Lathrop. Sadly, like all Haskins stamps I’ve found, it is undated. I haven’t yet been able to find anything out about this contractor, who has a smattering of stamps around the east side.
Here is a faded date with no name, or possibly one that had a name that is no longer visible. It’s at the southwest corner of South Magnolia Avenue and Marcus Street, on Marcus. I’m interested in it because I have found relatively few 1949 stamps, and because the typeface makes me think of a DPW stamp. I’m trying to narrow down when the DPW because the DPS and right now the earliest DPS stamp I’ve found has been 1950, but there is a possible 1947 one that is difficult to read.
Here’s a new(ish) Eastlund Concrete stamp from the house on the corner of southwest corner of South Magnolia Avenue and Marcus Street. The house faces Magnolia, but this particular stamp is on Marcus. It looks like in addition to some sidewalk, Eastlund also redid part of the diagonal front walk. I like the way it heads for the corner instead of aiming straight forward to Magnolia. I’ve admired this house for a while because of the interesting multiple cladding on the front facade.
Checking the Belon Real Estate Collection at the Capital Area District Library’s local history collection, I find that the house was built in 1946. A photo of it in 1958 shows it in what I assume was its original paint scheme, with the second floor painted a much darker shade than the first, which adds even more interest to its face; it’s a shame more recent owners have painted it all the same color. Still, it is an attractive house marred by deferred maintenance, unsurprising since it is landlord-owned.
As has been noted here before, I like the way that sidewalk stamps lend texture to the snow when it has freshly fallen on the sidewalk. So, since it was too snowy to find anything interesting tonight, enjoy a couple of glamour shots. No doubt this is a Cantu & Sons stamp, probably from 1987 or 1988, but I didn’t want to disturb the snow to find out. This is from the east side of Regent Street just north of Kalamazoo.
Here’s a B. Traverse stamp from right nearby the illegible one I showed you last time, on the west side of North Foster Avenue between Michigan and Vine. I felt like I had to take a picture of something legible that day, so this is what you get.
I returned to an old-looking but illegible stamp I had previously done in 2021, hoping that the time of day or the wet pavement might have made it visible. Unfortunately, I still can’t make it out (except for “Lansing, Mich”), although fussing with the contrast a bit made it tantalizingly close.
The paired stamp a bit north is equally illegible, if not more so. These are on the west side of North Foster Avenue between Michigan and Vine.
As part of the recent East Kalamazoo Street construction that also saw a lot of new sidewalk laid, a crosswalk with warning arrows was painted on Kalamazoo at Mifflin Avenue.
Kalamazoo previously had no crosswalks anywhere between Clemens and Howard, a nine-block span. This one is a lot closer to Howard than to Clemens, but it was presumably placed here due to the presence of the Village Party Store. It doesn’t have a light, even a flashing one, but at least it’s something.
As the news broke yesterday evening that 126-year-old Sparrow Hospital will be acquired by the University of Michigan’s health system, I decided to mark the end of an era by walking to Sparrow and recording a sidewalk stamp. It’s one I first noticed a long time ago and kept putting on the back burner and then eventually forgot about. I checked and re-checked my spreadsheet (yes, I have a spreadsheet), since I was having trouble believing I had never done it. It’s in front of the Sparrow Professional Building on East Michigan Avenue, which is across the street from the main Sparrow building, connected to it by a skywalk. The new sidewalk likely dates from a big expansion project that Sparrow started in 2003.
Granger Construction is based on Aurelius Road on the south side of Lansing and health care construction is one of their areas of expertise. Their Web site disappointingly does not include a company history.
Let’s get back to basics with a worn, old pair of Department of Public Works stamps. These are on the east side of South Magnolia Avenue between Marcus and Harton, in the Urbandale neighborhood. It’s a bit hard to read, but I think the date is 1930.
