1950 – Capital City Sidewalks

Posted on May 24, 2022May 24, 2022 by bunnyhugger

S. Holmes St., DPS (?), 1950

I am pretty sure this is a Lansing DPS stamp. It’s on Prospect Street between Jones and Holmes, next to the former Unity Church at 230 South Holmes. I like to try to find out what was at a given site at the time a stamp was made, but I haven’t ended up with a clear picture of that. Right now, what’s there is the remnant of the church, which had a devastating fire in 2019. According to the Lansing State Journal (November 13, 2019), the congregation was to vote on whether to rebuild the church at that location or move. Staying would have required applying for a zoning variance, because the church had been grandfathered into an otherwise residential-zoned area and doing substantial renovation would result in losing this status. Evidently they decided to move. According to city records, they sold it to someone calling themselves “Homes on Holmes LLC” in April 2021. I don’t know what they’re planning to do with it, but they have filed for a “Commercial Change of Use Group.” Church leaders made a YouTube video saying goodbye to the building, showing the interior to be completely gutted.

Pardon the poor visibility. I was on one of my nighttime walks.

According to the Journal article, “The property […] has been home to a church since the early 20th century,” which falls short of asserting that this building has been there that long. It reads as midcentury to me, but I’m not an expert. The city’s online property records are no help, since they claim it was built in 2011, which it plainly was not. It was owned until 2006 by the Metaphysical Church of Christ, previously known as the Spiritual Episcopal Church. The earliest reference I can find to the address in the State Journal is in the April 27, 1968, church listings: “FIRST SPIRITUAL EPISCOPAL 230 S. Holmes St. Morning service, 10:30. Dedication of new church home.” This could mean the church itself was new or it was merely a new home for the congregation. So I have been unable to determine anything definitively.

The former church and its sign at the corner. The sidewalk block with this stamp is the nearest full block.

Posted on February 8, 2022 by bunnyhugger

Regent St., C.D. Chamberlain, 1950

This is an encore appearance by this hard-to-read C.D. Chamberlain stamp alongside the former Pagoda restaurant on the southwest corner of Regent and Michigan. I wanted to show how a previously illegible stamp can suddenly reveal itself under the right conditions. This one taunted me for a long time, until one day I had a eureka moment. This is the most legible I’ve ever see it, though, thanks to the perfect combination of snow-melt water and silt collecting in the shallow impressions.

This gives me an idea for my next big project, now that I’ve mined just about the entire east side for interesting stamps. I should go back and check the ones I originally tagged as illegible to see if anything has changed, ideally after a bit of wet weather has come through.

Posted on August 10, 2021August 11, 2021 by bunnyhugger

Update: previously illegible Regent St., C.D. Chamberlain, 1950

I have walked past this stamp so many times, and periodically I start thinking I can almost read it, especially at night under the streetlight. What threw me is that the first two letters looked like “CD” but the entire stamp looked like one word, rather than initials and a surname. I could also tell that the last four letters were -LAIN and I kept thinking it was some variation of McClain or McLain, but those leads were not fruitful.

Tonight I walked past it and suddenly thought if I stopped and stared, this time I would get it. And what do you know? I did. My brain suddenly organized the shadows into “CD CHAMBERLAIN” – though the spacing is so close it still looks like one long word.

The stamp is on the west side of the 100 block of Regent Street, south of East Michigan Avenue, alongside the former Pagoda Restaurant. There are two of them, but this one is the more legible.

The first thing I did was go to Find A Grave and check for a C.D. Chamberlain. I found Claude D. Chamberlain, 1914-1998, which seemed promising. Turning to the (Lansing) State Journal, I found lots and lots and lots of references to Mrs. Claude D. Chamberlain in the Society pages in the 1950s and 60s. Mrs. Chamberlain was very active with several organizations, including the American Association of University Women, the St. Lawrence Hospital Auxiliary, and the Lansing Fine Arts Council. I also found her obituary; her name was Jean, and she died in late 2015 at the age of 98. Her name (as “Mrs. Claude”) appeared in the State Journal so much that it interfered with my trying to find anything out about Claude. I was unable to find his obituary, or anything about his life. Eventually I found a single reference to him that justifies identifying him as probably the C.D. Chamberlain of this stamp. On March 31, 1957, the name “Claude D. Chamberlain” appears in a list of “Blue Ribbon Builders” associated with some upcoming open houses.

Posted on May 25, 2021 by bunnyhugger

N. Francis Ave., DPS, 1950

I mistakenly thought that this pair of Department of Public Service stamps – on the west side of North Francis Avenue between Vine and Fernwood – had the earliest date I’d seen for a DPS stamp, which is why I photographed it. Checking later, I discovered I have previously done one other 1950 DPS stamp.

The northern stamp. It’s on the next lot north.

Looking north on North Fairview, with the southern stamp of the pair roughly in front of the house’s front steps.

Posted on January 16, 2021March 4, 2021 by bunnyhugger

Vine St., Herb [?] [Riebow], 1950

This is a frustrating one. It’s just west of the corner of Vine Street and Rumsey, on the south side of Vine. I had noticed it a few nights ago (I’ve been walking through the Rumsey/Vine/Custer area a lot lately to admire the cluster of late holiday lights there) but it was too dark for a photo. I could almost make it out, and thought in daylight it would be easy to read. I was wrong.

It’s “Herb [Something] Cont” (meaning contractor). That much is clear. Of course the most useful part for research is the part I can’t figure out. The first part looks like RIEBO, but then there is at least one more letter and I can’t make sense of it. It’s too small and the wrong shape and slant to be R (compare it with the R at the start), which is what I initially considered. I can’t see it as anything else either. Then there’s the question of whether it’s one or two letters. It looks like two distinct marks, but they’re too close together compared with the spacing of the rest of the letters. The dark mark in the midst of it is a hole (seemingly a pretty deep one, as I poked it with my finger to see if it was part of the stamp and didn’t find the bottom under the mud).

Facing northwest. Cropped out: the neighbor giving me a suspicious look. Left in: a dog who wasn’t worried about me.

Sadly, with the last name unknown I can’t tell you anything about this contractor.

Update 2/27/21: I now know it to be Herb Riebow.

Posted on December 12, 2020 by bunnyhugger

N. Magnolia Ave., B.(?) Gordon, 1950

I had been planning to do this one for a while and finally decided to do it this evening, though I got to it in waning light. It’s on the west side of North Magnolia Avenue, just north of Michigan in front of the Spanish Seventh-Day Adventist Church.

This stamp is quite small and located in the lower right corner.

Based on viewing it in better light I believe the year is 1950, which would make it roughly contemporary with (and possibly related to) the building of the church. I am not completely sure about the name. It’s certainly “Gordon” but the first initial could be B or E. In some light it looks more like B.

The Spanish Seventh-Day Adventist Church.

I haven’t had any luck finding out anything about the contractor. I thought I had a lead when I found some 1920s advertisements for the Brown-Gordon Co., but they were advertising delivery of gravel and sand. They show u p again in the October 1, 1955 State Highway Department publication, Compilation of Design and Construction Data for Concrete Pavement on the State Trunkline System. The date was promising, and I was hoping this would reveal them to also be concrete contractors, but no, they are listed only under “Fine Aggregate” and “Course Aggregate.” I suppose it is just a red herring after all.

The stamp in context, near the steps of the church.

Posted on November 28, 2020August 10, 2021 by bunnyhugger

Regent St., illegible name [C.D. Chamberlain], 1950

This stamp is on the west side of the 100 block of Regent Street, next to the office building on the corner of Michigan and Regent. Unfortunately, I can’t make out the name, except that it starts with a C and ends with “lain” and is probably two words.

I’ve learned to check for a paired stamp, especially when there are legibility issues. Well, I found it a little way south, but it didn’t help. It’s just as worn and it’s also very muddy at the moment.

The building this is next to currently houses a few unmemorable offices, but I have always been rather fascinated by it because of the fact that the one-story storefront part of the building clearly surrounds and nearly hides a two-story building, likely older and possibly a fairly grand house. According to the city’s records, it was built in 1924.

When I first moved to town, a neighbor told me the building used to be a Chinese restaurant. This made sense to me as the roof on the one-story part of the building has jade tiles, but I never learned any more about it. While researching this post, however, I ran across a couple of old Lansing State Journal advertisements for the Pagoda Restaurant at this address. That, I thought, must have been the restaurant my old neighbor was referring to. Then again, was it? In a stroke of luck for me, someone on eBay is currently selling a menu from Gallagher’s Pagoda Restaurant. Dishes on offer include fried chicken, roast chicken, veal cutlets, steer liver, pork chops, grilled ham, grilled sirloin, and various seafood dishes. There isn’t the slightest hint of anything Chinese about it. Still, I would bet that a vague and understandably confused memory (or secondhand information) led my neighbor to describe the Pagoda as a Chinese restaurant.

This driveway leads to the parking behind the office building, the former Pagoda restaurant. The northern stamp is on the nearest sidewalk block (upside down).

I don’t know what was here when this was stamped in 1950, since the earliest reference I can find to the Pagoda was from 1953. On April 24, 1953, an advertisement in the Lansing State Journal promised a “KIDDIE KARNIVAL – Special Family Dinner Rates – Pogo the Clown in Person.”

I also don’t know for sure when the Pagoda closed. I found an obituary for Charles Gallagher in the December 31, 1996, Lansing State Journal; he had died on December 29 at the age of 91. According to it, “Charles may be best remembered as co-owner, with his mother, Ida, of the Pagoda Restaurant in Lansing until 1969.” That doesn’t necessarily mean that the Pagoda closed in 1969, but it is suggestive.

Update: I finally managed to read this one! It is C.D. Chamberlain.

Posted on November 7, 2020 by bunnyhugger

N. Magnolia Ave., DPS, 1950

Oho! Now what do we have here? A DPW variation I haven’t seen before – sort of. It’s on the west side of North Magnolia Avenue just north of Michigan. The style is similar to the 1940s DPW stamps, but it says Lansing DPS instead. So, around 1950 Lansing apparently went from having a Department of Public Works to having a Department of Public Service. Today we have a Public Service Department, but the stamps specify O & M or Operations and Maintenance, one of the divisions of Public Service.