2000s – Page 5 – Capital City Sidewalks

Posted on February 13, 2021 by bunnyhugger

Marsh Road (Okemos), H & C, 2007

I had business at the Meridian Mall today, so I thought I would do my first Meridian Township stamp, and get one in front of the mall. To that end I started look on Google Street View, which I sometimes do to scout a spot before walking there. It’s often possible to see stamps and even sometimes possible to read them. I was disappointed that it didn’t look like there were any stamps to be found near the front entrance. That got me wondering whether Meridian Township has the same rule about sidewalk stamping as the city of Lansing – that is, that sidewalks must be stamped with the name of the contractor and the date. I went to the Meridian Township code, but there it only said that sidewalks must be constructed according to the specifications of the Director of Public Works and Engineering. I dug around a little on the Meridian Township Web site until I found those specifications. Regarding stamping, they state:

At each end of the pour, or at least every 80’, the sidewalk/pathway must be imprinted with the contractor’s name and date stamp. The letters of the stamp shall be 1 1⁄2” high.
Meridian Township Department of Public Works

I’m surprised it specifies an exact height for the letters instead of “at least” an inch and a half as it says in Lansing’s code. It is also more specific about how frequent the stamps should be. Nevertheless, they seem infrequent in the vicinity of the mall.

Looking northeast with the mall on the left and Marsh Road on the right. The only spot I found where the public sidewalk cuts in to the mall is in the center of the picture, and the stamp is near the bottom.

Sidewalks themselves get short shrift around the mall, probably unsurprisingly, but irritatingly nonetheless. I set out to walk the outside edge of the mall and found that a sidewalk at the edge of the building exists only intermittently, mostly around the doors. The longest unbroken stretch of sidewalk is around the Macy’s wing. None of it is stamped. There is no sidewalk at all around the mall’s perimeter road. I only found one place where the public sidewalk even offers a pedestrian entrance to the mall, and it’s on the Marsh Road side rather than near the front entrance on Grand River. Having one lonely access path is so inadequate that it hardly seems worth having any at all. It makes me wonder if the township required them to have pedestrian access when they built the mall so they complied in the stingiest manner possible.

It’s near that access sidewalk that I found a stamp. I had spotted it on Google Street View so I knew it was there, and a couple more like it, though those were hidden by snow at the moment. The contractor is probably H & C Earthworks and Construction of Bath Township, about which I can’t find much information.

Looking toward the Dick’s wing of the mall from approximately the site of the stamp.

Posted on January 14, 2021 by bunnyhugger

Rumsey Ave., Shenandoah, 2003

This is a contractor I haven’t covered before. The pair of stamps is on the east side of Rumsey Avenue between Jerome and Vine.

The northern stamp. I also got a bit of my toe.

Shenandoah Construction is based in Mason. According to Angieslist, they were founded in 1990 and “emphasize concrete flatwork in the summers.” I am unsure whether they are still in business. They have a Facebook page, but the most recent posts were two years ago and their Web site is defunct.

Looking south, with the northern stamp visible.

The southern stamp, and both of my toes this time.

Posted on December 16, 2020April 27, 2021 by bunnyhugger

Kipling Blvd., Bay (?), 2003 (?)

This one is on the west side of Kipling Boulevard between Michigan and Vine. Not sure why Kipling gets to be a boulevard. Looks like a regular old street to me.

It’s another one of those cryptic stamps, made famous in a couple of past entries. Now, though, I think the first letter is a B rather than the D that I thought I saw before. That doesn’t get me any closer to figuring this one out, though.

Posted on December 7, 2020 by bunnyhugger

E. Cesar E. Chavez Ave., Dan’s Concrete, 2009

I was in Old Town for Christmas shopping today and took a quick shot of an unfamiliar contractor’s stamp in front of Pleats Interior Design, on the north side of East Cesar E. Chavez Avenue (Historic Grand River) between Turner and Center. I can find some residual directory listings for Dan’s Concrete which suggest it was based on Harris Street in Lansing’s north side, but it doesn’t seem to be in business now and I can’t find out anything about it.

Everything in Old Town is now a gallery, a boutique, or a tattoo parlor, but in times past it was more down to earth. The nice-looking brick storefront occupied by Pleats seems to have been a grocery store called Affeldt’s (“Ask your neighbor – she knows!”) in the 1930s, then Rulison and Sons Supply Company (“We Do HEMSTITCHING”) in the 1940s and 50s. In the 1980s it was home to Minor Creations, a lingerie manufacturer. A January 10, 1993 classified ad sought an industrial cutter for a garment factory, able to lift heavy bolts of cloth; no company name was given, but I assume it was still Minor Creations. To my surprise, Minor Creations (warning: not entirely SFW) still exists and is now based in Okemos. They seem to now call themselves a dancewear rather than lingerie manufacturer. And, times being what they are, they also sell masks to match your tiger striped sexy garb.

Sorry, you can no longer go in and watch lingerie being made, but they would probably sell you some very sexy throw pillows.

Posted on November 27, 2020November 27, 2020 by bunnyhugger

N. Aurelius Rd., L & L, 2002

This L & L stamp is on a walking path that cuts down from the west side of North Aurelius Road to Clemens. To the north of this, Aurelius “becomes” Clemens and crosses I-496 as an overpass. To the south, it is an overpass over the railroad tracks. In the early 2000s there was a project that both reduced the number of lanes on Aurelius to try to calm traffic, and made the overpasses more pedestrian-friendly. I would guess this sidewalk installation was part of that.

Looking down from Aurelius toward Clemens. Most people say that Clemens “turns into” Aurelius as it goes south but in some sense that isn’t true because they do exist side by side for a couple of blocks.

I refer to the streets here as “the other Clemens,” “the other Regent,” and so on, or sometimes “the alternate universe streets,” because they seem to be in a different world from the streets of my neighborhood despite sharing their names. It’s always hard to believe that they are just down the way as the crow flies, and once upon a time they would have been been one unbroken street. That ended with 496.

Posted on November 26, 2020 by bunnyhugger

N. Fairview Ave., T L Contracting, 2009

This stamp is on North Fairview Avenue just south of the corner of Jerome Street. I can find a T L Contracting that is (or was) on South Lowell in DeWitt, and one (maybe the same one) on Industrial Parkway in Lansing. I can’t find a Web site for the company or any other information.

Posted on November 20, 2020September 25, 2021 by bunnyhugger

Shepard St., L & L, 2000

This is just another L & L stamp; at least, I assume so, though they seem to have lost the ampersand this time. The truth is that the other stamp I photographed on tonight’s walk turned out to be one I had done before (which I am now fairly sure is 1952 rather than 1957 by the way), so I have to deploy a less interesting backup. My walks have been limited due to my recent surgery and tonight I had to walk after sunset, so you’ll take this L & L stamp and you’ll like it.

This is near the driveway that leads behind 1700 East Michigan Avenue from the east side of Shepard St. It’s alongside the vacant commercial building that until recently, and for years, was Discount One Hour Signs.

Posted on October 27, 2020 by bunnyhugger

E. Michigan Ave., S & N, 2000

This is a first for this blog: this stamp is not within the city limits of Lansing. It is just barely inside the convoluted borders of Lansing Charter Township. More specifically, it is on the north side of East Michigan Avenue between the two US-127 overpasses, just east of Feldman Chevrolet. S & N Contractors stamps are present at intervals all the way under both overpasses. There must have been a big overpass construction project in 2000. I have a very vague memory of the freeway being closed for a stretch when I was new in town, so that lines up.

I believe that S & N Contractors is most likely the one that was once located on Lansing Road, with a Charlotte address but located closer to Dimondale. OpenCorporates gives their dissolution date as 2005. I notice that the State of Michigan Department of Transportation’s materials source guide dated March 2014 lists them as an approved supplier. I don’t know whether or not that means they were still around in some form by then. In any case, they no longer seem to be in business.

Posted on October 20, 2020October 26, 2020 by bunnyhugger

Leslie St., Maxwell Const., 2000

I had to walk late again tonight between work and a rain shower that took up my last hour of daylight time, so it’s lucky that I ran across a well-lit stamp I haven’t done yet. This one is on the west side of Leslie Street, north of Kalamazoo and just south of Stanley Court. (“Stanley who?”) Stanley Court is a narrow, one-block street between Leslie and Shepard which avoids being one of the nameless alleys that thread through many neighborhood blocks merely because a half dozen houses do actually face it. It’s kind of an oddity since it is almost, but not quite, level with Eureka Street, which starts a couple of blocks further west.

I like how it appears to have a bolt of lightning through it.

Anyway, back to the stamp. I can find two Maxwell Const[ruction] companies in Michigan, one in Detroit and one in Lennon. I know the small town of Lennon in part because there is a delightful concrete statuary business there called Krupp’s Novelty Shop, and I bought the rabbit statue in my front garden there. Maxwell of Lennon has no Web presence, but according to Angie’s List they were founded in 2005, so that would rule them out. Maxwell of Detroit has a slick Web site and from that I learn they were founded in 2012. I suppose whatever Maxwell Construction this was, they are no longer in business.

Looking south on Leslie. The stamp is in front of a handsome American foursquare home with an interesting raised garden bed around the porch.

Posted on October 18, 2020October 26, 2020 by bunnyhugger

Regent St., L & L, 2000

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.