It was too hot to go collecting stamps today, so instead I have a news clipping for you. On May 8, 1914, in the State Journal, the Lansing Artificial Stone Co. ran a classified advertisement with a “removal notice.” I had missed this one when doing some research on Lansing Artificial Stone previously. I have to suppose that “removal notice” is a 1910s term for an announcement of moving. Here is the text of the advertisement, in its entirety:
REMOVAL NOTICE We have moved our office to 109 North Cedar first door north of Michigan Ave. Let us give you prices on your sidewalks. Lansing Artificial Stone Co., J. P. Sleight, Prop.
State Journal, May 8, 1914
There is also another removal notice elsewhere in the classifieds, with the same text except that instead of offering prices on sidewalks, it says “We have full line of building material, etc. See us for right prices. Special attention given to farmer trade. Full stock on hand at office warehouse.”
109 North Cedar Street no longer exists; the site is currently a permit parking lot beside the Lansing Center. The latest reference I can find to an establishment at 109 North Cedar (though it may well not have been the same building) is from February 1967, at which time it was… any guesses? I’ll give you a moment. Time’s up, it was a car dealership, specifically England-Cook Chevrolet (subject of the famous book, Unsafe With Any Spice). The Artificial Stone Co. was certainly gone from there by March 1921, replaced by “Cooper-Ehinger Company, Builders of fine homes.” England-Cook was in residence there by 1937.
I was planning to do something easy today, but I stumbled across this on the west side of Custer Avenue between Jerome and Vine, and was so excited I had to get it immediately. I recognized the name of the Lansing Artificial Stone Company as among the earliest sidewalk contractors in Lansing. It has come up a few times in my research on other stamps.
I knew right away to stop and gawk at this one; the typeface and arched design screamed “old.” I just wish I knew how old.
I have found a few interesting, if disconnected, tidbits about the Lansing Artificial Stone Company. By 1912 they were located at 323 East Michigan Avenue. Today the Lansing Center covers that block. The 1902 Lansing Journal “Twentieth Century Edition” has a history of the early builders of Lansing which writes in very glowing tones of the company:
Within the last decade the making of artificial stone has progressed to a degree of excellence that has far surpassed previous expectations. The inventions and improvements in that line of work by the Lansing Artificial Stone Co. have been the main cause of this change, and their product is regarded everywhere as being of a superior quality as regards both beauty and durability.
The Lansing Journal Twentieth Century Edition
It goes on to say that “ninety percent of all brick buildings in Lansing are trimmed with this company’s artificial stone.”
According to the Annual Report of the Board of State Auditors for the State of Michigan for the Year Ending June 30, 1904, in 1903 Lansing Artificial Stone submitted the winning bid for installing sidewalk over a boiler room on the north side of the Capitol. They also submitted an unsuccessful bid for installing sidewalk on several downtown streets (which the City of Lansing had declared to be “a public necessity”).
Looking north on Custer Avenue. Sorry for having to take this one in the dark, but at least you can see some Christmas lights.
Lansing Artificial Stone seems to have had a wide influence. A Michigan Agricultural College student-published newspaper (I would go so far as to call it a zine), the Eagle, stated (in the first issue, dated February 10, 1892) that “The Lansing artificial stone company [sic] have established works at Rogers Park North Chicago and contracts are coming in too fast for the capacity of the works.” The Philadelphia Buildings and Architects site’s entry on R.C. Ballinger & Co. reports, “In the Philadelphia Real Estate Record and Builders Guide for 3 October 1894 R. C. Ballinger & Co. announces that it has organized to manufacture Lansing Artificial Stone in Philadelphia, apparently a reference to an early form of permastone.” Lansing Artificial Stone seems to have become a trade name; was it licensed or franchised somehow?
I wish very much that this stamp had a date. It could potentially be the oldest one I’ve found. Then again, it seems that the company was still in business at least as late as 1915.
I’ve been traveling and didn’t have the chance to collect any stamps from the field this weekend, so here is a link to a State Journal clipping dated July 8, 1920. It begins, “Your attention is hereby called to the following resolution adopted by the city council Monday, July 6, 1920. By Ald. Eddy – Resolved by the citv council of the city of Lansing: That it is a necessary public improvement and it is hereby determined that a new artificial stone sidewalk six feet wide shall be built in front of south one-half of lot 2, block 58, on the west side of Sycamore street, owned by Lewis Widmayer.”
It then goes on with a series of “also”s, adding properties on Sycamore, Logan, and Hyland, all streets west of downtown. (Logan Street is the previous name for Martin Luther King Jr. Boulevard.)
I love running across really old, really worn stamps like this, even if there is an element of frustration to it when they are illegible. I almost didn’t see this one because it is so worn that only someone really looking for it (like me) would probably notice it at all. I can just make out “Stone Co.” as probably the second line. If there had been a date, I don’t see any sign of it now. The first line is totally illegible. My first thought is is of the Lansing Artificial Stone Co., but it has a very different style from the one I have found from that company, and the illegible part also doesn’t look long enough.
Alas, it will not be giving up its secrets to me. This is a block of houses that date from the late 1890s to early 1900s, so I would guess that this is one of the original pieces of sidewalk here.
What a beautiful day it was for a walk today, and what an interesting stamp I found, on the east side of Bingham Street just north of the corner of Prospect. Actually, I had seen this one before, but always at dusk when it wasn’t worth trying to photograph something so worn. Although it was daylight this time, I still couldn’t read the name, except that it ended with “-sville.” But the date is what really got my attention: 6-08, or June 1908.
At home, I showed the photo to my husband, on my small mobile screen. We both puzzled over it for some time. The first two letters were likely two initials. We both independently arrived at the idea that the last name started with an E and that the second letter might be a Q. I tried searching for various combinations based on that and found nothing. I set the project aside for dinner.
After dinner I brought the photo up again, but this time on my laptop screen. Immediately, out of the blue, a different name emerged and I realized I was looking at “Rounsville.” It’s funny how this happens sometimes. A search confirmed it. The Annual Report of the Board of State Auditors for the State of Michigan contains several estimates from F.N. Rounsville, in September 1903, for “cement walks surrounding blocks 78 and 79.” I don’t know what blocks those are, or how blocks were numbered at the time, but I do note that it’s the earliest reference I have yet found to sidewalks in Lansing.
More searching turned up some exciting connections to names that have graced this blog before. According to James McLean and Craig A. Whitford’sLansing: City on the Grand, 1836-1939(a book that has helped me with research before), F.N. Rounsville was Fred Rounsville:
Rounsville Market, established in 1891 on the corner of Cedar and Michigan. Fred N. Rounsville operated this market for ten years until starting J. Clear Company, later to be known as Rounsville Cartage, which he operated for 45 years. He was also associated with Jacob Sleight’s Artificial Stone Company and was a director of the Duplex Truck Company.
James McLean and Craig A. Whitford, Lansing: City on the Grand, 1836-1939, p. 37.
On July 12, 1973, the Lansing State Journal ran an article describing a walking tour of what they called Old North Lansing, better known today as Old Town. Among the historic properties described is 1017 North Washington: “Most famous as the former home of Fred Rounsville, the founder of the Rounsville Dray Lines and the Lansing Artificial Stone Co., the house is noteworthy for its gables, porch and steeply pitched roof.” I have checked out the house in Google Street View and it is indeed lovely. I will have to visit it in person sometime.
J.P. Sleight has appeared in the blog twice so far, for a 1907 and 1908 stamp. I have also featured a stamp from the Lansing Artificial Stone Co., which was eventually owned by J.P. Sleight. Based on my own research, the LSJ may be mistaken about Rounsville being the founder of the Lansing Artificial Stone Co. I don’t doubt that he had an association with it (I have found a lot of connections between early sidewalk contractors) but an 1880 history of Ingham and Eaton Counties by Samuel W. Durant states that the Lansing Artificial Stone Co. was founded by C.W. Stevens.
Sadly, this sidewalk is in very bad condition, with cracks like lightning striking through it. It is in front of a large and rather unusual-looking house on the corner of Bingham and Prospect, which according to the city’s property records was built in 1909. Directly across the street is the old L.F.D. No. 4 fire station. It’s a nice corner of the neighborhood, so why not visit this stamp before it has completely crumbled away?
According to @ClassicStrips, this comic ran October 13, 1917. So-called artificial stone sidewalks were plentiful in my part of Lansing by then. I’ve found walks dated back to 1907, and 1910-1911 stamps (mostly Minnis & Ewer) are common around my neighborhood.
The previous Everett True strip I talked about was from 1908 and the drawing made it clear that the sidewalk in question was a boardwalk. I would have thought that by 1917, True’s city would have installed artificial stone walks, but I’m not so sure. Six hours isn’t very much time to get concrete poured and finished. It feels more plausible as a span of time for getting loose boards replaced.
While neither strip is an exemplar of subtle wit, I think the earlier one is superior. The silent second panel is a better punchline and a funnier drawing.
I have no sidewalks to share with you today, so instead I’ll share a comic with you that my husband shared with me. He follows the Classic Comic Strips Twitter, and pointed out to me that they had shared the following “Outbursts of Everett True” comic.
“The Outbursts of Everett True” by A.D. Condo.
My husband occasionally likes to share examples of “The Outbursts of Everett True” with me and from these encounters I think I have gotten a feel for what it’s about. It always starts with Mr. True getting riled up about someone’s rude, obnoxious, or otherwise antisocial behavior, and then ends with him pummeling the offender. I think the point is to allow the readers to vicariously live out their fantasies of setting ne’er-do-wells straight.
According to Classic Comic Strips, this strip is dated 6/10/08, making it a touch younger than the oldest sidewalk markings I’ve found in Lansing. One imagines that so-called “artificial stone sidewalks” were coming to Everett True’s neighborhood soon enough. In Lansing, the installation and maintenance of sidewalks is the responsibility of a property owner, and in the old days, the City Council did formally compel owners to have sidewalks constructed. As is true in many cities, it is still technically the homeowner’s responsibility to pay for sidewalk repairs in front of their house in Lansing, but in practice it appears that they have not been charging homeowners for sidewalk work in recent years.
I was lucky enough to find a second sidewalk stamp during my recent mini-vacation, this one at Sylvan Beach Amusement Park, a thoroughly charming old park on Oneida Lake, New York. The stamp is in front of an ice cream stand, where I bought a Pepsi float that really hit the spot on a hot day. Sadly, the stamp is undated. The park has been in existence since the 1870s or 1880s (sources seem to disagree on this point) but the pavement is surely not that old. From the condition and style of the stamp, I would make a handwaving guess that it dates from the 1920s or so.
I love that arc layout, which was also popular among Lansing contractors.
N.D. Peters & Co. does not seem to be in business today. The earliest reference I can find to the company is the 1910 Proceedings of the Board of Contract and Supply of Utica, which reports that N.D. Peters & Co was awarded a contract for the construction of artificial stone sidewalks in Utica, “being the lowest bidder therefor” with bids of 14, 15, and 16 cents per square foot for various sidewalks. In 1914, the Proceedings of the Board of Contract and Supply again reports that they were awarded a contract for the construction of artificial stone sidewalks. This time their bid was 16 cents per square foot on all proposed streets “except Book 3, Map 16, Block 17, Lot 2, Elizabeth street, on which they bid 50 cents per square foot.” I wonder why that one lot on Elizabeth Street was so expensive to pave. (I also have noticed in doing research for this blog that the style around the 1910s was not to capitalize “street” when used along with the name of a street, which looks odd to my contemporary eyes.) A 1913 Utica city directory locates the business on Kossuth Avenue.
I’m not exactly sure when N.D. Peters went out of business. OpenCorporates gives its dissolution date as 2001, but that doesn’t always mean the business was still functioning by then (or even that it necessarily ceased to exist in some form). They were at least still around by 1999, when they were found by the National Labor Relations Board to have violated someone’s union contract by failing to recall him after a layoff.
This old-looking, diamond-shaped marking is on the west side of the 100 block of North Foster Avenue, between Michigan and Vine. I have taken notice of it several times and finally decided to feature it.
I don’t know for sure what the word in the middle is. There was once a George Leavens in the concrete business in Lansing; that much I know for sure, and most probably this was he. So the third word isn’t part of his name but rather the name of his company or line of work. My guess is “MAKER.”
Sadly there is no date either. George Leavens was in the concrete business by 1922. I know that from the October 23, 1922 issue of American Builder, in particular an article titled “Truck-Mounted Concrete Mixer Saves Time and Labor for Contractor.” Leavens had apparently figured out a novel method for pouring concrete from a moving truck. I notice that they reference his knowledge of gasoline engines as helping him determine the optimal horsepower for the mixer. The September 14, 1933, issue of the Ingham County News includes a legal notice of the dissolution of the Lansing Cast Stone Block Company, naming George Leavens as one of the directors.Concrete sidewalks used to sometimes be called “artificial stone” so that is probably still part of his career in the concrete business.
Looking south on Foster.
Some helpful person (probably a family member) has shared their research into Leavens’s life at FindAGrave.com. He was born in Cambridgeshire, England, in 1888 and moved to Lansing in 1906. He had a surprisingly varied career according to census records. In 1910 he was an iron foundry worker in Lansing, then in 1920 he was an auto factory worker in Dewitt (there’s the source of his knowledge of gasoline engines). In 1930 he is back in Lansing as a manager at a concrete block company (that would presumably be the Lansing Cast Stone Block Company) and then in 1940 (the year he died) he and his wife were owners of a grocery store in Lansing. An interesting thing to note is that he and his wife, Ellen, had a great disparity in age, and not in the more usual direction; he was born in 1888 and she in 1866. Yet they had three children, two daughters and a son. Their first daughter was born in 1910, which is at least plausible for a biological child for Ellen, and I don’t know when their second daughter was born, but their son was born in 1923. I was puzzling over the dates here and mentioned it to my husband. He said, “They didn’t have a son. They had a relative who got embarrassed.”
I have also found George Leavens at PoliticalGraveyard.com, or at least I assume so. He ran for township supervisor of Lansing Township as a Republican in 1939, losing out in the primary. (The Democrat had no primary opponent.) This spurred me to check whether there is even a contested primary for township supervisor in Lansing anymore. I learned that in the most recent primaries, no one ran as an Republican. One person ran in the primaries as a Democrat, receiving all but one vote. (That one vote was a write-in.) Apparently the Lansing Township supervisor elections were a little more exciting in the 1930s.
