I’ve had my eye on this Regent Street Department of Public Works stamp (on the east side, 400 block, between Elizabeth and Kalamazoo). I previously posted it as having an illegible date, Periodically, it has almost become legible, due to the right lighting or a bit of water pooling in the indentations. Recently, I had decided it was possibly a 4 after the 19, but still could not read the final number at all. Then, suddenly, as I walked the block this evening…
Plain as day, thanks to fall rains washing away the right amount of mud and leaving the right amount of silt behind.
As foreshadowed in my recent entry about Regent Place apartments, I returned to the vicinity to take a picture in front of Regent Place’s next door neighbor, the Regent Arms apartments. This is on the east side of Regent between Michigan and Kalamazoo (100 block).
The southern stamp.
The stamp is a C. Gossett stamp from 1962. Actually, there are a pair of them, framing a short run of sidewalk (which is interrupted by a later Cantu & Sons stamp in the middle).
Looking north, with the southern stamp closest to the camera. The light colored block two away is a later Cantu & Sons stamp; the northern stamp is past that.
This stamp pre-dates the Regent Arms, which was built in 1966, in case that isn’t obvious from looking at it. When I first lived here, it was painted dark brown and had a weathered sign with its name on the front. Later it got its current paint job, which coordinates it with Regent Place but, I think, suits it less. I think that is also when it lost its identity as “Regent Arms” and just got its street address on the front instead. The landlord’s Web site still uses the Regent Arms name. I’m not likely to stop.
The northern stamp.
I do know what was here when this pavement was stamped. A while back I downloaded a set of real estate cards from the 1950s and 60s for properties on Regent Street, part of the digitized local history collection of the Capital Area District Library. While trying to figure out what house had previously been on the Regent Place site (it turns out no house was ever located there), I discovered the card for a house on the site of the Regent Arms. It was an American Foursquare house, very typical of the east side. The owner was one Ruth Clippert whose reason for selling was “doesn’t need.” The house was vacant. From this I infer that it was an investment property.
(Update half an hour later: I have discovered something that leads me to retract the “investment property” theory. That is this clipping from the Lansing State Journal of January 23, 1941, reporting on a wedding reception held at the home of “Mrs. Martin Clippert” – the address given is the one for Ruth Clippert in the real estate card. Was Mrs. Martin Ruth, or a relative? Either way it seems this was someone selling a family home.)
The neatly typed card has a handwritten addendum written crosswise over it: “Sold 1-5-65.” That was probably the sale to whomever demolished it to build the Regent Arms, as according to the landlord’s Web site, the apartment building “was designed by Architect Howard DeWolf in 1965 and built in 1966.”
The boldly modernist hulk of the Regent Arms. On the right side, the building hangs preciously over empty space, allowing for parking underneath. This allows the building to come impressively close to the boundary of the lot.
I ran out of time to seek out a more interesting stamp as it’s crunch time at work, so I thought I would just throw up this Able stamp with apologies. But then I figured I should at least give you a few details about the building it’s in front of. Whoops; went and ate up a bunch of time by discovering something interesting, again. First things first: here’s the pair of stamps, on the east side of Regent Street between Michigan and Kalamazoo (the 100 block).
The northern stamp.
The southern stamp, a few blocks away.
The stamps are in front of the Regent Place Apartments, a small apartment building that is the northernmost property on the east side of Regent. I have walked past these apartments countless times, starting back when I used to walk to the bus stop all the time to get to work. They were harder to date than the aggressively 1960s apartment block next door (about which more in a later entry, I’m sure). I went to the city’s property records to see when they were built. I had a bit of a shock.
Regent Place Apartments.
These apartments, which in my mind have just “always been here,” were built in 1999. The same year I moved to town (and the same year as these stamps, which is probably not a coincidence). I could hardly imagine the street without them. I began searching the Lansing State Journal records to see what was there before and came up with nothing. Searching an address usually yields at least something: old wedding announcements, for instance, or previous businesses. I could not find anything earlier for this address than some classified advertisements from April 1999 promising “BRAND NEW!” units. Evidently, Regent Place Apartments arrived in Lansing only a few months before I did. I was startled by this revelation.
The northern stamp in context.
When I could not find anything else about this address on Regent Street, I began to suspect that the previous house or houses on this lot were numbered something different, and began trying a few guesses, also unsuccessfully. I could have saved myself a lot time if I had found the landlord’s Web site sooner. It turns out they have a short history of the property and according to their research, no house was ever on the lot. Prior to the construction of Regent Place, it was a parking lot for the apartments next door. It also served as overflow parking for the Pagoda restaurant. And, it says, “According to legend a Mr. Parsons who owned the business at the corner of Regent and Michigan in the early 1970s used to land his helicopter, with some difficulty on this site.” I’m not sure what business that would be. I assume it refers to the east corner, which was an A&P for a long time and as late as the 1960s, but that seems to have gone away before the 1970s.
This stamp is on the west side of the 100 block of Regent Street, next to the office building on the corner of Michigan and Regent. Unfortunately, I can’t make out the name, except that it starts with a C and ends with “lain” and is probably two words.
The northern stamp.
I’ve learned to check for a paired stamp, especially when there are legibility issues. Well, I found it a little way south, but it didn’t help. It’s just as worn and it’s also very muddy at the moment.
The southern stamp.
The building this is next to currently houses a few unmemorable offices, but I have always been rather fascinated by it because of the fact that the one-story storefront part of the building clearly surrounds and nearly hides a two-story building, likely older and possibly a fairly grand house. According to the city’s records, it was built in 1924.
When I first moved to town, a neighbor told me the building used to be a Chinese restaurant. This made sense to me as the roof on the one-story part of the building has jade tiles, but I never learned any more about it. While researching this post, however, I ran across a couple of old Lansing State Journal advertisements for the Pagoda Restaurant at this address. That, I thought, must have been the restaurant my old neighbor was referring to. Then again, was it? In a stroke of luck for me, someone on eBay is currently selling a menu from Gallagher’s Pagoda Restaurant. Dishes on offer include fried chicken, roast chicken, veal cutlets, steer liver, pork chops, grilled ham, grilled sirloin, and various seafood dishes. There isn’t the slightest hint of anything Chinese about it. Still, I would bet that a vague and understandably confused memory (or secondhand information) led my neighbor to describe the Pagoda as a Chinese restaurant.
This driveway leads to the parking behind the office building, the former Pagoda restaurant. The northern stamp is on the nearest sidewalk block (upside down).
I don’t know what was here when this was stamped in 1950, since the earliest reference I can find to the Pagoda was from 1953. On April 24, 1953, an advertisement in the Lansing State Journal promised a “KIDDIE KARNIVAL – Special Family Dinner Rates – Pogo the Clown in Person.”
I also don’t know for sure when the Pagoda closed. I found an obituary for Charles Gallagher in the December 31, 1996, Lansing State Journal; he had died on December 29 at the age of 91. According to it, “Charles may be best remembered as co-owner, with his mother, Ida, of the Pagoda Restaurant in Lansing until 1969.” That doesn’t necessarily mean that the Pagoda closed in 1969, but it is suggestive.
Update: I finally managed to read this one! It is C.D. Chamberlain.
Here’s a very worn one on the west side of Regent Street midway between Kalamazoo and Elizabeth. The date is definitely 1963, in a big, stylish typeface. It’s always a bit strange when the date is bigger than the name.
As for the name, I believe I can make out “J Wilson.” The name is too common for me to learn much by trying to search the Lansing State Journal, so the contractor will have to remain a mystery for the foreseeable future.
This very worn and craggy stamp is on the east side of Regent Street between Kalamazoo and Elizabeth (500 block). I read it as L. Miller, 1963. It looks handwritten, and could almost be taken as graffiti, but I lean away from that interpretation because the the placement and name/date format is standard for contractor stamps.
I can find evidence of a contractor and builder named Lloyd Miller in some mid-1950s Lansing State Journal classifieds pages. Miller was based in East Lansing. There also seems to have been a Lloyd Miller real estate agency during the same time period, so it seems like ol’ Lloyd would build you a house or sell you one. My guess is that this is Lloyd Miller’s mark.
Looking north on Regent, with the stamp at the very bottom here.
On the east side of Regent Street between Kalamazoo and Elizabeth (500 block), this fading Henry Davis stamp sits quietly.
Looking north on Regent. I like that yard’s stone retaining wall. I’m always a bit envious of houses with raised yards and steps up. There’s something I like about that look.
Here is the other curb walk on Regent Street. (For those new to my blog, “curb walk” is the totally invented name I came up with for the bits of pavement that lead from the sidewalk to the curb as I don’t know what they’re actually called.) It is on the west side of the 200 block between Kalamazoo and Michigan. The stamp comes from L & L, already well represented in this blog.
Good old Y2K! I don’t remember seeing this one made even though I was walking this street to the bus stop quite a bit back then. But then, why would I remember something like that? Of course, now I’m very curious about the origin and purpose of these bits of sidewalk, so I have questions. Was there one there before and this was a replacement of it? Or did the owners of the property have one made new, and if so, why? It can’t date to the building of the house and isn’t nearly as old as the Minnis & Ewer-stamped one.
The stamp in context, looking southwest. I’m sorry I didn’t capture the house it’s in front of, but according to neighborhood rumor, recently someone got the cops called on them for taking photos of street trees, so apparently people get jumpy if a camera is aimed toward their property.
Today I took my walk at one of the magic times of day that draw out hard-to-read stamps. This stamp, on the east side of the 400 block of Regent Street (between Elizabeth and Kalamazoo), was previously so worn as to be totally illegible and almost invisible to me. But this evening the low angle of the sun made it give up its date quite clearly: 1954.
No such luck with the name, I’m afraid. It plainly starts with a J and after a space I think the next letter is an H. Past that I’m lost. I like the layout, with the smaller letters of the name forming a curve over the large, relatively ornate year.
Update 4/2/21: Now that I’ve seen another one (elsewhere on Regent), I am pretty sure this is J. Wilson.
This is a first for the blog, but one that I have been planning on dropping in eventually. This neat and clear Minnis & Ewer stamp looks like it could have been left there last week, but it could very well be over 100 years old, based on the age of the only dated Minnis & Ewer stamp I have found (1911). That in itself makes it interesting, but the real reason I am posting it is because it represents something I find curious and don’t yet understand, the existence of bits of pavement leading from the sidewalk to the curb. This one is on the 200 block of Regent Street, between Michigan and Kalamazoo, on the east side of the street.
I grew up calling the strip of lawn between the sidewalk and the curb “the extension” as that was what my parents called it. I still use it, but have come to realize no one else around me does. Google has let me know that this is because it is not just specific to Michigan but pretty well localized to Ann Arbor, where I grew up. It appears in the city code of a few towns in Michigan but only Ann Arborites actually seem to use it in conversation.
I don’t know what to call these bits of sidewalk that appear on extensions erratically around my neighborhood. I have used the keyword “curb walk” just so I can find this entry again later, but that’s something I just made up as a placeholder until I come up with something better.
I originally thought, when I saw a bit of pavement like this, that the owner must have had it installed so they had somewhere to set out their trash bin for collection without messing up the grass. On consideration this does not seem to entirely explain it, both because of how old this one likely is (though perhaps contemporary to the old house it’s in front of) and because on some streets they appear at regular intervals as though they were considered a functional part of the sidewalk when it was constructed. This is not one of those places and I believe this is the only one on the block. I rather wish I had one, especially if it had a cool old stamp like this. I would set a planter on it (but not on the stamp).
Update 10/11/20: Joseph has pointed out that there is a date on this one. I revisited it with better light and was able to see that it is dated “6-11” – June 1911.
