Here is a faded date with no name, or possibly one that had a name that is no longer visible. It’s at the southwest corner of South Magnolia Avenue and Marcus Street, on Marcus. I’m interested in it because I have found relatively few 1949 stamps, and because the typeface makes me think of a DPW stamp. I’m trying to narrow down when the DPW because the DPS and right now the earliest DPS stamp I’ve found has been 1950, but there is a possible 1947 one that is difficult to read.
Since it was dark and the stamp is so worn, you’ll have to take my word for it that this is a Lansing DPW stamp. It’s definitely from the 1940s, the question is what the last digit is. I shone a raking light over it and thought it was 1949. If so, that’s the latest DPW stamp I have found. All the 1950s stamps I have found read “Lansing DPS” instead.
It’s on the east side of Lathrop Street between Prospect and Kalamazoo, and I admit I partly wanted an excuse to show that the neighborhood has started to put its Halloween flair on, like the house this stamp is in front of.
This one is on the front walk of a house on the north side of Jerome Street between Custer and Rumsey. Unfortunately it is not quite legible in full. The name appears to be two initials and then a surname. The surname looks like it starts with “Look-” but might actually be “Locke” as I can find evidence of a family with that name in Lansing in this time period. The line underneath that is totally illegible. I had no joy trying to find any contractor matching these details. At least the date is clear enough.
Here is a curiously unsigned date stamp from the north side of Prospect between Bingham and Pennsylvania. Most of the 1940s stamps I find are from the Department of Public Works, so I am inclined to suspect their hand in this. If so, I am sorry they didn’t complete the marking, as I have no 1949 DPW stamps recorded, and I am trying to figure out when they switched to stamping DPS instead. The latest 1940s stamp I have found is a 1945 which probably says DPW but that part is worn enough to be unclear. The next prior one I have is a clear 1944 DPW stamp. After that it skips to 1950, at which time they were now identifying themselves as the Lansing DPS.
I took my walk at Hawk Island Park today, so there wasn’t any sidewalk for me to photograph. After leaving I thought I’d try ducking into a neighborhood I haven’t covered at all yet, and ended up driving into the Sycamore Park subdivision and parking somewhere more or less at random.
I discovered this pleasant subdivision for the first time shortly after the New Year, when my husband and I decided to drive around viewing lights for a final Christmas activity. We discovered a real wealth of lights here, and were amused by how the street names (Lindbergh, Pershing, Harding) suggested a 1920s origin, though were puzzled by seeing a lot of houses looking to be from the 50s. It must have been developed in phases, probably interrupted by the War.
Sycamore Park subdivision resulted from Col. Fred E. Shubel developing a piece of land he owned called Sycamore Farm. According to an advertisement in the July 20, 1929, Lansing State Journal, Lindbergh Drive had been established and graveled, and selection of lots by the interested would begin taking place in a few weeks. Shubel is quoted as saying, “I think it was Ex-President Harding who stressed the ideal of owning a little piece of the United States of America.” I guess he really liked Harding.
I walked a little way along Pershing Drive and was frustrated to find nothing but a lot of BBRPCI stamps from 1990. Then I walked along Shubel and found a handful of frustratingly worn stamps. I could tell they were contractors I don’t recognize, but they weren’t legible beyond a few letters here and there. It seemed as though the older sidewalk stamps were all extremely worn and faded. I almost gave up and chose an unreadable one, but then suddenly this one appeared, on the east side of Shubel Avenue between Parkdale and Pershing.
I read it at the time as “R. Boyer,” but upon looking at it more carefully via the camera’s eye, I think the second name is Royer. Unfortunately I can’t find anything about the contractor. I can find that there was a Royer family in Lansing at the time, but they were in the oil business.
The neat little house this is in front of was built in 1949, so this is probably the original sidewalk.
