I walked out to the neighborhood I call Eastmost in order to collect a stamp I’d noted on some previous outing. I was foiled in this plan by a layer of snow covering the area where I believed the stamp to be. I gave up and started walking back. It was snowing, and even the relatively clear areas were being steadily covered. I decided I had better stop at the first sidewalk I came to that had a light coating and get to work finding something there.
I love how it looks when the snow fills in the stamp.
So that’s what I did. This Isabella Corp. stamp is in front of a pawn shop (it just calls itself “SECOND HAND STORE” on the awning, though the Internet tells me it’s properly H & M Discount Second Hand Store) on the north side of East Michigan Avenue between Francis and Foster. Before the building was H & M, it was another, very similar-looking pawn shop. It was built in 1952 and its first occupant seems to have been Associates Discount Corp. I went to find out more about them and Googling their name got me pages of caselaw references – usually them suing someone but occasionally someone suing them. I learned that they were an auto finance company, so apparently the building has stayed in the loan business.
I walked along this stretch of Michigan dragging a boot at the top and bottom of each sidewalk slab until I uncovered something. I wonder what the next person to walk by made of it.
Prior to becoming Associates Discount Corp., the address belonged to Jack Royeton Inc., a Kaiser-Frazer car dealer. Once upon a time, Eastmost was the dealership district. It’s amazing to think what it that must have been like.
Here is a BBRPCI (BBR Progressive Concrete, Inc.) stamp from 1986. It’s in front of Liberty Christian Church, which is on the north side of East Michigan Avenue between Magnolia and Hayford. The stamp is nothing special but I was a little curious about the church.
The city’s property database claims the various buildings that make up the church were all built in 2011. This is plainly not true, and I’m not sure why it says that. Fortunately, I discovered that the church is up for sale and the real estate listing states that it was built in 1927 for the Olivet Baptist Church. It also contains some obnoxious hype about neighborhood gentrification along with suggestions about converting it into a nightclub or apartments or something. Gross. Anyway, 1927 certainly matches the central core of the church’s architecture but other elements look midcentury to me.
Breeze block in front of the church looking pretty. The stamp is lower center.
I don’t know when Olivet Baptist moved out. They were still there at least as late as 1983, as I can find them referenced in a Lansing State Journal church directory then. Liberty has been there as long as I can remember and based on Google street view, at least by 2007. I would like to do more research into this, but I lack the emotional energy for more research tonight, so I will leave that for another time.
This is a different (and nicer, in my view) version of J.A. Iszler’s stamp than I posted the other day. It is on the north side of East Michigan Avenue between Clemens and Fairview, in front of Toarmina’s Pizza.
Toarmina’s wasn’t there yet in 2004. Instead, this storefront was currently home to Lopez Bakery, the business I still associate it most with. Lopez was a combination Mexican bakery and coffee bar (I think the coffee bar may have been a separate business that shared space with them). They moved in sometime during my early years in Lansing (I moved here in 1999) and closed in 2007. I never got baked goods from there, but I remember that they also shared the location with a coffee bar and I think I got coffee from there once or twice.
I don’t know what was originally in this storefront, but an advertisement in the December 17, 1926, Lansing State Journal gives it as the address of Universal Grocery. They were advertising a moving sale as they were moving to 1220 East Grand River (which has more recently been various party stores and a City Pulse Eyesore of the Week) in what is now called Old Town. I’m if they were the original occupant of the Toarmina’s address or not. The business appears to have become a dry cleaner in the 1930s and ’40s.
The stamp (there is only one, no twin this time) in context, looking west on East Michigan.
This nice, sharp BBRPCI (BBR Progressive Concrete Inc.) stamp is on the south side of East Michigan Avenue just east of Fairview.
This corner has been a vacant lot for so long (that For Lease sign has been there since at least 2011, per Google Street View) that I had to jog my memory about what used to be there. It was two buildings, one of them an old house and the other a low-slung, dismal commercial building which most recently was the home base of Shaggin’ Wagon Taxi. Recently it has been the temporary quarters of the Allen Farmers Market during construction on the Allen Neighborhood Center.
Looking east on East Michigan toward the vacant lot’s neighbor, Hotwater Works.
Searching the Lansing State Journal, I turned up perhaps the most unusual business to have occupied the address. In March 1993, a late-night music venue called The Ibex Sings opened. In May 1993 it closed with a farewell party.
They say if you put your ear to the gravel you can still hear a punk show.
Here is a nice, neat one from Clark Foundation, dated this time.
Notice that the date stamp appears to be made of separate stamps lined up.
This one is on the curb cut on the southwest corner of East Michigan Avenue and South Hayford Avenue, leading across Hayford. It’s in front of another big new Gillespie building that takes up the whole block. All the sidewalk around it looks new, and has Clark Foundation stamps in several places.
Looking west on Michigan.
This corner used to have a 1925 Pulver Bros. service station, in use more recently as the Greater Lansing Ballet and Academy of Dance Arts; and before that, the Delphi stained glass supplier. Now it’s got a big, bland, hulk of a building called (I have just learned this) “Provident Place.” At least the sidewalk is nice.
Today’s is actually a cluster. I’ve noticed these before but usually when walking at night, when it would have been hard to get a good photo. I finally passed this way in the evening. This is on the south side of the 1400 block of East Michigan Avenue between Clifford and Holmes, in front of the Physicians Health Plan building. By sheer, until-now unrecognized, coincidence, this is actually due north of yesterday’s Beverly Place Apartments location, 1400 East Michigan versus yesterday’s 1401 East Kalamazoo.
Either this one was done at the beginning of the work day, or by the person on the crew whose views on “doing things right” most resembled my dad’s.
The J. Carter Co. of Holt seems to be out of business, although only recently. OpenCorporates gives its incorporation date as 1984 and its dissolution date as 2014. That may not exactly reflect when the business ceased to exist, but the stray traces of it I can find on the Internet suggest it made it to relatively recent times. Its former address, on Keller Road in Holt, is now occupied by Moore Trosper. Whether they just took over the building or also bought out the business I don’t know.
The stamp in the top photo is visible near the bottom of this one. The parking lot belongs to Physicians Health Plan.
The one thing I have found out about the J. Carter Co. is this brief news item from page 12 of the October 14, 1987, Lansing State Journal: “The J. Carter Co. of Holt has begun building a cement holder for the state’s Christmas tree on the lawn of the Capitol. Technically called a sleeve, the project will take the place of the temporary ones built each year. Work on the $22,000 project began Tuesday and is to be completed by Nov. 10.” Sadly, that sleeve is no longer in use. The state tree had to be relocated further forward due to the installation of bollards at the edge of the Capitol grounds in 2016 to stop terrorists from driving onto the lawn and doing terror-doughnuts. As a result the state tree has been smaller, a deficiency they have attempted to surmount with the addition of a gust-prone tree topper. What’s that you say? You’re wondering if I’m opinionated about this? Well, since you wrung it out of me, I will admit that I do not like the new tree placement. It looked much more dramatic in its old location. But I confess it is indeed a small price to pay to keep terrorists off the Capitol lawn.
This stamp is a little way west of the one above, on the other end of the parking lot.
The above stamp in context (lower left).
There are several stamps out in front of PHP, including the neater one in the first photo, but I have to admit that I find the haphazard placement of the stamps in the second two photos – especially the way the date managed to end up in there twice – amusing and even somewhat endearing.
This one is actually on a smaller (maybe half-sized) slab; sorry I didn’t get a contextual picture this time, but it’s a little bit west of the one above.
This rather rustic-looking stamp is on the south side of East Michigan Avenue between Clifford and Holmes (but much closer to Clifford – really between Clifford and Rosamond, if Rosamond were to extend up to Michigan). It is smaller in size than most stamps, and also faces sideways relative to traffic heading east-west along Michigan.
B & B Construction no longer appears to be in business, but I find that it was based in Holt during this time period, and also that it sponsored a men’s slow pitch softball team. As I’ve mentioned before, it seems like I turn up as many of these businesses on the sports page as anywhere else. The May 18, 1985 Lansing State Journal reported that B & B lost to Popeyes, 11-8. The last reference I see to a business that is probably the same B & B is in the May 18, 1998 LSJ classifieds: “We lay block, brick, do flatwork & pole barns. Free estimates, 20 yrs. exp.” (There is a B & B Concrete Placement in the Detroit area, but I assume that is a different business.)
Facing south toward the office.
This one is out in front of the offices of the Unity Spiritual Center church, one of those charming old house-turned-office buildings that pepper Michigan Avenue. The house was built in 1906.
This is on the north side of Michigan between Fairview and Magnolia, out in front of the MetroPCS that looks like it used to be a rental car place (because it was, but more on that in a future entry). At some point, the sidewalk here was narrowed, leaving only half of this stamp behind. It looks like it was chopped off to make room for a garden or street tree, though all that’s here now is a weedy patch. I had to pull up a mat of encroaching plants to be able to see to the edge. I was rewarded by the discovery of part of a date which had been buried entirely.
I am pretty sure the letter that’s a bit hard to see here at the start is an r, so “-roleum Corp.” Petroleum, I guess, but I haven’t been able to figure out what petroleum business might also have installed sidewalks. The second line seems to be “-tion Div.” which I assume was Construction Division. The number definitely ends in 7, I can tell you that. Unfortunately the crucial number before that one is partly obliterated. What’s left suggests “2” to me.
The slab in context. Notice on the right how the surrounding sidewalk is wider.
Today’s stamp is in front of the same address as yesterday’s – the Budget/Avis lot on the north side of East Michigan Avenue between Kipling and Lasalle Court. It’s just east of Kipling, close to the crosswalk.
The E. T. MacKenzie Company was established in 1982 in Grand Ledge and still has its headquarters there, although it now also has a few branch offices in Michigan and one in Florida. They offer construction, demolition, and remediation services according to their Web site, so I guess you could say they’re a Mack of all trades.
Notice the style of the stamp. I first encountered it as the new style O & M stamp, and have subsequently observed it in use by several contractors. Evidently some third party sells them using a standard template. They look neat enough, but I would sacrifice orderly for unique.
This stamp is on the south side of East Michigan Avenue between Regent and Clemens. Isabella Corporation is based in Mount Pleasant, which is in Isabella County. Their business address is on Commerce Street. Despite the fact that I have worked in Mount Pleasant for fifteen years, I don’t know where that is without looking it up. As a commuter, I really only know the area around my workplace and a couple of places that co-workers like to gather. I think this might be the furthest out of town any of the contractors have been from, among those I could identify. Mount Pleasant, as I very well know, is around an hour’s drive away.
The stamp is in front of the building with the front ramp pictured below. It’s a big old (1916) American Foursquare house that has been converted to an office at some point. Such houses are common on this stretch of Michigan.
Looking west on Michigan Avenue at dusk. The Little Free Library and “take/leave” boxes belong to the office (a similar house) outside the frame to the left.
I’m not sure what, if anything, is in the house right now. I still think of it as “where the anarchist bookstore used to be” even though that is very long gone and was there only briefly. I have memories of walking home from the Michigan and Clemens bus stop after work, passing the Brighter Days Infoshop. I never went in there, but I remember people often seemed to be hanging around on the porch, which was open at the time. (I think it looked a lot better that way.) In my memory, this spans a greater time than in reality. In fact, I was very surprised when I discovered that Brighter Days opened in August 2003 and was closed by early July 2004. The building spent much longer as a chiropractor’s office and yet for some reason that’s not what’s lodged in my memory.
