I picked up this relatively rare Ed Brackins stamp on my walk tonight. It’s the latest dated one I have; the two others with dates are from the early 1950s. I think it says 1960, but I can’t be entirely sure of the last digit. I also failed to note where I found it, so I know I was somewhere in the area bordered by Regent, Lathrop, Kalamazoo, and 496, but that’s the best I can do. I will look for it on an upcoming walk and come back and edit this once I have found it.
Here’s a B. Traverse stamp from right nearby the illegible one I showed you last time, on the west side of North Foster Avenue between Michigan and Vine. I felt like I had to take a picture of something legible that day, so this is what you get.
A tired-looking building that styles itself “Kalamazoo Plaza” sits at the northwest corner of East Kalamazoo Street and South Pennsylvania Avenue, and this stamp is on the Pennsylvania side of the property. In person I do think I see the faintest impression of a name above the date, but it is hopelessly illegible.
The building was built in 1960, so the sidewalk probably had work done at the same time. Currently, the west side of the building is the closed-for-good husk of a neighborhood dollar store, Dollar Palace. The east side identifies itself as Falcon Auto Traders, though it does not really look like it is doing much in the way of auto trading. Prior to Falcon moving in, it was a pharmacy, Lansing Community Health Mart, until at least 2011.
At one point the building (I don’t know which suite) was home to Capital City Typing Service, which renamed itself Quality Typing Service later on, and may also have been known as Capitol Area Typing Service. The Lansing State Journal business pages of June 30, 1985, reported,
Capital City Typing Service, 925 E. Kalamazoo St., is under new management. The new owner, president is Lois “Jane” Joehlin, who has worked in the secretarial field for over 30 years and has an associate degree in business management.
I found this one on the west side of Ferguson Street between Jerome and Vine. C. Gossett stamps are very plentiful in the neighborhood – probably one of the five most common – but I think this is the first one I have seen with a diagonal placement. I wonder why someone decided to do it that way, this time?
This remnant of a stamp is on the south side of East Michigan Avenue between Clifford and Ferguson. Only the faintest impression remains of a date. I caught sight of it on a nighttime walk and I suspect it would only be visible by streetlight; anything brighter would probably completely wash it out. It’s on one end of a set of three slabs of similar composition, likely poured at the same time. All three are lined up on one side of a double-wide sidewalk. The slabs side-by-side with these look to be of a different vintage.
I can’t be sure the date is 1960. It might be 1980. It looks more like 1960 to me and the extremely worn state of it also inclines me to the earlier date.
This is out in front of the driveway of Mercy Ambulance, which surely also has something to do with how worn it is. Mercy Ambulance is a starkly modern building for the block, barnlike, and yet I find it strangely appealing in an ugly sort of way. According to their Web site, Mercy Ambulance was founded in 1955 by Rodney Palmer. As the current President is Dennis G. Palmer, I am assuming it is still in the same family. I thought perhaps the building dated from 1955 and was built for Mercy Ambulance, but that turned out to be incorrect. The city’s records say it was built in 1940. Mercy Ambulance was originally located on Pennsylvania Avenue and, according to an old issue of the Eastside Neighborhood Organization News, moved to this building in 1971.
Prior to Mercy Ambulance moving in, the building (and its attached apartment) belonged to Mundo Faggion Plumbing and Heating. According to a January 24, 1994, obituary in the Lansing State Journal, Armando “Mundo” Faggion founded that business in 1929.
This is my first stamp from the north side, so it’s a shame that it’s nothing too remarkable. It’s on the east side of North East Street between Gier and Call Streets. We’ve seen plenty of BdWL stamps before, and I am no wiser about what that stands for and who it is. I was here today checking out the going-out-of-business sale of Vet’s Too; the owner is retiring.
Vet’s Too is next door to, and shares a parking lot with, Vet’s Ace Hardware, widely regarded as the best hardware store in town. I admit I sometimes call it the “scary hardware store” not because it’s bad but because it’s too good. It’s crammed floor-to-ceiling with the greatest variety of hardware I’ve ever seen, and the effect is overwhelming.
Vet’s Too is a boutique of clothes, jewelry, decor, and gifts, and I had never been in it before. The wonderful glass block windows give the building a distinctive 1950s appearance, despite the unfortunately drab gray paint. It was certainly here when the BdWL stamp was placed (the online property records say it was built in 1952), but I don’t know what it was. My searches are strangely failing to come up with references to the address before 1972.
By 1972 it was an X-rated theater called the Pussycat Theater. (I learned in the course of this that Pussycat Theater was a very common name for such movie houses in the 1970s, including a famous California chain.) Ads for the theater continue to appear in the Lansing State Journal until at least 1985, but I am not sure when it closed. I did find some forum chatter with someone’s recollections suggesting it closed between 1997 and 2001.
This is a new contractor for me, found on the west side of South Fairview Avenue between Elizabeth and Harton, in the Urbandale neighborhood. I can’t seem to find out anything about H. Widman the contractor. There was a Harry Widman who was active in the Capitol Grange in the 1940s and 50s, but I don’t know if there is any relation.
The stamp is in front of a house with a walk-out basement, which is very unusual for the neighborhood. I don’t think I’ve seen another like it around here.
This pair of stamps is on the east side of North Magnolia Avenue between Vine and Fernwood. I’ve been striking out a lot recently on identifying contractor histories; I wasn’t able to find anything on Dumeney. It doesn’t help that there was a Gary Dumeney who served as the spokesperson for the Meridian Township Police for many years.
This stamp is on the east side of North Fairview Avenue between Fernwood and Saginaw, along with a few more like it on this block. Unfortunately, this is going to be another unsatisfying entry; I haven’t been able to turn up anything about Mel Taylor. The name is just too common to narrow down.
I’m assuming this is not the same Mel Taylor who was a manager with REO Motors in the 1950s, nor the same Mel Taylor who was a minister around the same time. I will have to leave this one unsolved for now.
I found this stamp on the east side of the dead-end block of Shepard Street south of Elizabeth.
Unfortunately, finding anything out about someone with such a common arrangement of names is challenging. I keep getting hits for a Fred Smith, Jr., of Dimondale who was apparently a locally legendary horseshoe player in the 1960s. Also, Dimondale apparently calls itself the Horseshoe (as in the game) Capital of the World. This is the first I’ve heard of it. I don’t think that Fred Smith has anything to do with this, though; based on obituaries I found of both him and his father, neither appear to have been in the concrete or construction business.
