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E. Michigan Ave., O & M, 2018

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.

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E. Michigan Ave., Isabella Corp., 2016

This stamp is on the south side of East Michigan Avenue between Shepard and Leslie. It’s in front of one of the various old homes, mostly American Foursquares, that have been converted to retail. This is a particularly old house – 1880, according to the city’s records. The most recent business here was Kimlan Flowers and Gifts, but it has been out of business as long as I can remember, the awning out front getting more and more tattered until finally the last remnants of the cover on it were removed. The sign offering it for sale or lease has been there at least ten years.

I have found surprisingly little about the history of the property. The earliest reference I can find to a business at the address was in the 1970s, when it was Better Properties, Inc., a real estate business. Better Properties sold it in 1995, but in the the city records, the field that should say whom it was sold to is blank. They have an undated photo of the business as ACD Computers (the predecessor of internet provider ACD.net), which I assume came between the Better Properties and Kimlan eras.

The stamp is nothing too special. There are a lot of Isabella Corp. stamps from around 2016 on this stretch of Michigan Avenue.

The stamp is outside the frame here, but located in front of the front steps of the house.
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E. Michigan Ave., L & L, 2000

This stamp is at the edge of the street, on the driveway belonging to Innova Salon and Day Spa, on the south side of East Michigan Avenue between Allen and Shepard. L & L stamps are plentiful; I am more interested in the building this is in front of. Like several of the businesses in this stretch of Michigan, it is a big old house that has been converted into retail.

It has an impressive second floor porch, and the surprising part is that it isn’t original to the house. Google’s street view of the house taken in 2007 shows it with no porch on the second story (and thus looking like a more standard-for-the-neighborhood American Foursquare). No windows on the second story either; they apparently got covered over at some point in its retail history. The street view from 2008 shows it being renovated, with windows reappearing on the second floor and the previous first-floor storefront addition now absent. It looks much handsomer now than it did before the renovation.

I’m not sure when it went from residential to retail, but it spent a few decades as MacLaughlin’s Piano Mart (later MacLaughlin’s Piano and Organ Mart). On November 30, 1980, a Lansing State Journal ad reads, “DOUG BROWN MUSIC (formerly MacLaughlin) – serving Lansing over 30 years.” By 1997 the address was home to Print King. There really does seem to have been a time when this stretch of Michigan Avenue was the print shop district. I can think of at least four former print shops in the vicinity. A photo in the city’s property records dated March 2001 shows the Print King signage in place but a “FOR SALE” sign in the window. The 2007 Google street view shows Rapid Appliance Service here instead. Innova Salon moved in soon after.

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E. Michigan Ave., BBRPCI, 1986

This pair of stamps is on the south side of East Michigan Avenue between Fairview and Magnolia. It’s hard to read the date in one of them, but the other is quite clear and I am going to assume they were done together.

The stamps are in front of the closed Hotwater Works building, until recently a neighborhood staple. It was, somehow, both a hot tub retailer and a jam space for local musicians. The side facing the now-vacant lot was painted with a couple of different murals over the years, the first one depicting a fairy with the command “RELAX” and the second one featuring a group of Japanese macaques bathing. I never had any reason to go in there, but in a way, I just liked it being there. It seemed like an offbeat place to anchor an offbeat neighborhood. Here is a short article about the history of the business from radio station WDBM.

Sadly, they closed up in early 2020. Surprisingly, this wasn’t a COVID loss: they were having their liquidation sale already in February. I suspect the beginning of the end actually came in 2017 when the original owner, James McFarland, died. I note from city records that the property was sold by McFarland’s estate in January 2020 to “McFarland Sisters Enter L L C.” I imagine that the hot tub business wasn’t what it once was, and the family decided the real estate was more valuable.

Looking east on East Michigan Avenue.

As for the history of the property, it was built in 1947 as Bagger Trailer Sales, and was sold to George H. Rowley in 1952 to become an auto agency. It spent a while as a B.F. Goodrich tire shop in the 1970s, and then in the 1980s and 90s was Delphi Stained Glass. Hotwater Works moved in around 1997.

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E. Michigan Ave., Hanneman, undated

This stamp is on the south side of East Michigan Avenue between Charles and Detroit, just outside the city limits of Lansing in Lansing Township. It’s in front of the building on the corner of Detroit Street that now houses the People’s Kitchen restaurant. The building was built in 1958 and for most of its existence it housed various offices. Prior to the building’s construction, the site was (of course) a Bud Kouts used car lot and before that it was Bill Otto Buick.

In 2017, a food truck called Street Kitchen moved in, which was started by a former co-owner of the (in)famous Old Town breakfast spot The Golden Harvest. In 2019 Street Kitchen remade itself as the People’s Kitchen, a full-fledged restaurant.

Facing the People’s Kitchen’s entrance. The stamp is facing away from the viewer, underneath (and facing) an arc-shaped Able Concrete stamp.

Hanneman is most likely Carl Hanneman, who started a concrete business in 1953 and then sold it to Mark A. Fineis in 1988. The business is still in existence today as Hanneman & Fineis. I wrote a little bit about them in a previous entry. This allows me to date the stamp between 1953 and 1988, which I admit is not narrowing it down much. I wonder if it was connected to the office building’s construction.

Looking east toward Detroit Street.

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E. Michigan Ave., L & L, 2000

This stamp is in front of the large building on the southeast corner of East Michigan Avenue and Regent Street. The building was originally an A&P, but I know it best as H.C. Berger, a photocopier dealer. I cut through their parking lot countless times heading home from the bus stop after grad school classes. According to the City Pulse “New in Town” column on November 27, 2013, H.C. Berger had been there since 1973.

In 2013 the Berger family sold the building and H.C. Berger moved to Okemos. Today they seem to have either merged with or been bought by A.B. Dick Document Solutions of Grand Rapids. Their Web site has both names in the logo, but most of the text including the “About Us” page just refers to them as A.B. Dick.

At that time, a convenience store from down the street called Michigan Mart moved in. As reported in the above “New in Town” article, the new owners talked big about expanding it into a local grocery store with produce and a deli counter and the whole bit. Instead, disappointingly, it limped along with largely bare shelves as a party store in a way-too-big building before closing again. It has had a “for lease” sign in the window for ages now gathering dust. (The back of the building and its ample parking is used by Michigan Motors, a very odd supposed used car lot that does not actually appear to sell any cars.) One beneficial thing Michigan Mart did was to remove part of the corrugated siding from the building, allowing the nicer flat stone siding to surface.

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E. Michigan Ave., Isabella Corp., 2016

There is a squat brick storefront, built in the 1950s but attached to a rambling older house behind it, on the north side of East Michigan Avenue at the east corner of Custer. It currently houses the Applause Salon. I don’t know what was in it before that, only that in the 1960s it was Stasi Hair Fashions, a wig shop. Out front is this stamp.

The sidewalk also hosts a bit of graffiti from Lisa W. of the salon. The building and the house are currently owned by a Lisa and Jon W., so I assume Lisa is the owner. (They don’t live in the house, though. They apparently rent it out, disappointing me in my desire to see an old fashioned owner-resident situation.)

The stamp is on the block blow and to the left of the fire hydrant.

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Horton Ave., DPW, undated(?)

Tonight’s entry finds me at the very northern end of the west side of Horton Avenue, where the road that evidently once continued on toward the Armory is blocked off by a flimsy little gate. On the very last little bit of sidewalk, there is a Department of Public Works stamp, using the style that was phased out between the 1920s and 1940s.

At first blush it appears undated. But wait, what’s this? Why does that look like… a handwritten 1980?

Well, now I’m very confused. While I have discovered that there is significant overlap in the years that the DPW used particular stamps, there is no way the oldest stamp style was still being used in the 1980s. They were two or three styles past it by then. Granting the date might be graffiti, but it still would have had to be done when the cement was wet.

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E. Michigan Ave., L [&] L, 2000

I’m surprised I haven’t done this one yet. It’s out in front of The Avenue, the bar where my pinball league met when there were pinball leagues, which is on the north side of Michigan at Fairview. Not sure why L & L is just “L L” this time, but I’m sure it’s them. There’s a lot of variety in their stamps.

I spent several hours in the emergency room today for what turned out to probably be food poisoning, and I still don’t feel too great, so this is going to be a short entry. I’m thinking to do a bit more research on this location later on.

For now, though, I’ll just note that in 2000 this was still Raupp Campfitter, the last remaining location of what had once been a small Michigan chain of camping supply stores. I never had reason to go there, but I get the impression that it was well loved by those who did have reason to go there. At this time of year, when the ivy has died back, you can still see the RAUPP letters over the rear entrance. It closed in 2004 and was replaced by a cybercafe called Girls Gone Wired, which rather quickly (fortunately) became just Gone Wired. My grad school buddy and I used to meet up there for “grading parties.” Eventually, under the same ownership, it evolved into The Avenue Cafe, which at first was a cafe by day and bar by night, and eventually just gave up on the last vestiges of the cafe aspect and became a straight up, evening-hours-only bar and live music venue. And, of course, the best pinball venue in Lansing.

Another angle on The Avenue. (The stamp isn’t visible in this one.)