“Condemn Walk to School” clipping, 1917

Between the heat and other interruptions, I still haven’t had a chance to collect any more sidewalk stamps lately, so here’s another old State Journal clipping. The front page (!) of the September 25, 1917, State Journal contains this report from City Council, quoted in its entirety:

Condemn Walk to School. Ald. Bovee denounced the condition of sidewalks leading to Columbia Park school across Michigan Ave. as disgraceful, saying that the lives of school children who were obliged to cross at these places were endangered. Eighth ward citizens were called upon and they declared that the conditions should be remedied. Ald. McKinley then remarked that all that was necessary to do was to circulate petitions and said that If Ald. Bovee was not able to start the petitions that he would try to do it for the eighth ward alderman.

I was surprised to discover that Columbia Park School was a previous name for Foster Avenue School. It joined the Lansing school district in 1916 and received the new name (which is in keeping with the normal Lansing scheme for elementary school names) in 1917 when it was remodeled, according to Capital Area District Library’s local history collection. The new name must have happened rather late in 1917 since it is still known as Columbia Park in this article from September. I’m not sure what the original name refers to.