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Kipling Blvd., Brown Const., 1988

On a pleasant early-afternoon walk in search of Halloween decorations, I came across these stamps from a contractor I haven’t noticed before. They are on the west side of Kipling Boulevard between Lasalle and Fernwood. There are two, a short distance apart, which means they probably marked the beginning and end of a section of new concrete.

One of the stamps has a date stamped underneath, though faintly enough that I thought it was undated until I looked at my photo afterward. My phone tends to put a lot of contrast on photos and that popped it out. Curiously, the other stamp has a much clearer but handwritten date.

I don’t know anything about Brown Construction, but I wonder if it is this contractor in Grand Ledge that Yelp reports as closed.

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Lathrop St., Cantu & Sons, 1988

This stamp is from Lathrop Street south of Elizabeth, on the west side of the street. The sidewalk ends here. On the east side of the street it continues, as Lathrop curves around to meet Allen. Unlike other streets nearby that were truncated by the construction of I-496 in the late 1960s, Lathrop would always have ended more or less here, because Stabler Park lay to the south. The turn that joins Lathrop to Allen is now a bit diagonal, in parallel to 496, whereas it used to be more squared off (as I can see on HistoricAerials.com). The result is that while the last house on the east side has survived, the last two on the west side were 496 casualties.

The stamp is on the very last piece of sidewalk on the west side, and I find it odd that it extends a little past the driveway for no apparent reason. Since it’s dated 1988, it was laid long after any houses existed to the south. My guess is that it marks the lot line. The doomed house that used to be next door to this one, 628 Lathrop, sold in 1957 for $6,800 cash. The real estate card notes that it had a dark room in the basement.

A view of the stamp from the south. It’s on the closest edge, facing this way.
Past the fence is I-496, but once upon a time Stabler Park would have been over there.
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E. Michigan Ave., BBRPCI, 1988

I heard that there was a fire at the house behind Liz’s Alteration Shop (on the south side of East Michigan Avenue between Leslie and Regent), so I walked over to see how bad it looks. Unfortunately, the answer is pretty bad. Liz McMurray, who was featured in the 2022 People Issue of the City Pulse, owns the property and lives in the house, but she was out of town when it happened. The firefighters were fortunately able to save some important sentimental items including her family Bible.

I decided I might as well get this shot of a BBRPCI stamp while I was there.

According to the city’s records, the house and the attached shopfront were both built in 1912. Liz’s Alteration Shop has been there since 1978.

Everything looks normal from this angle. The stamp is near the closest flower pot, there.
Unfortunately, here you can see how bad the attic and second floor look. I read that it did not damage the shop.

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Marcus St., Cantu & Sons, 1988

This stamp, from the south side of Marcus Street between Clemens and Fairview, is a typical example of a Cantu & Sons stamp with the 1987 date corrected to 1988. There are a lot of ones like that around the neighborhood. The real reason I photographed it, though, was the odd graffiti, added as though an addendum to the contractor stamp: “The Butterfly.”

There is something else scrawled in the corner to the left, but I wasn’t able to make it out in the current light.

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Prospect St., Cantu & Sons, 1988

In case you thought this blog had strayed too far from its roots, here’s a Cantu & Sons 1988 stamp. I can tell this the faded date is 1988 mainly because I can see the extra line they were in the habit of putting in to change the 7 to an 8 before they finally got around to getting a 1988 stamp. The stamp is in front of the only house that faces the 1900 block of Prospect Street. It’s on the south side of Prospect Street west of Clemens.

When I was new in town I very often had to walk home from the bus stop at Michigan and Clemens, usually by walking south on Clemens and then west on Kalamazoo. This walk got so dull from repetition that I wished I could vary it, and was disappointed by the abrupt disappearance of Prospect west of Clemens. (It then reappears at Allen Street.) There is just a little stub end of Prospect that continues a short distance past the intersection, serving the single house to the south, a driveway to the north, and straight ahead… this.

I was very puzzled by this stark, concrete block building. What is it doing here? Who does it belong to? It looks out of place and doesn’t seem to have anything to do with the house next to it or anything else on Prospect. I always wondered about it but never thought to try to figure it out until I started all this walking and blogging. That’s when I realized that it might belong to a house on the next street west, that is, Regent Street.

And so it does. I worked out that it belongs to a house on Regent Street and that the city has it accounted as a garage, built 1910, the same year as the house. But the supposed garage is bigger than the house, 1,660 square feet versus 1,120. Viewed from the house side, it appears that there is a normal (for the neighborhood) single-car garage with painted siding attached to it up front, which the city labels “shed” in their sketch of the property. The whole setup is very odd. There must be a story behind this.

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Regent St., Cantu & Sons, 1988(?)

This stamp is on the west side of Regent Street just about midway between Kalamazoo and Elizabeth. It’s in front of the same house as this J. Wilson stamp. The house itself is a cute little Dutch colonial. A decade-plus ago, I had to have part of my chimney rebuilt, and the mason who did it lived in this house. He said, “You know I’ll do a good job because I’ll have to look at it.” In fact, he did do a really nice job.

The stamp isn’t visible in this picture, but it’s more or less centered in front of the house.

The date appeared to be 1988 when I raked it with my flashlight beam, but now that I look at the photo it seems more like 1987. I will have to look at it in daylight next chance I get.

This is apparently the guardian of the stamp, as he walked up and stood on it while I tried to take a photo, meowing very loudly.

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Regent St., Cantu & Sons, 1988

This is on the east side of Regent Street’s 300 block, between Michigan and Kalamazoo. Yeah, yeah, it’s the most dirt-standard catalogue entry. I posted three times yesterday, I figure I can coast for a couple of days. I can’t quite bring myself to give up daily posting yet.

It’s one of the ones (they are numerous) that has the 7 changed to an 8.
The stamp in context in front of someone’s front walk, facing northeast.

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E. Michigan Ave., BBRPCI, 1988

After I did a stamp in front of Mercy Ambulance, I figured I would follow up by doing one in front of the Medical Arts Building one block east, on the south side of East Michigan Avenue between Ferguson and Holmes. As with Mercy Ambulance, there is something about the starkly modern building that appeals to me. In this case, the oversized caduceus on the front face, though a controversial choice, is certainly a large part of the charm.

I hadn’t realized that this building is owned by Sparrow Hospital, though I wasn’t very surprised to learn it, either. This whole area of downtown Lansing is the land of Sparrow Hospital, and it continues to spread. A clipping from the October 25, 1963, State Journal (courtesy of fellow local history enthusiast Timothy Bowman and his very useful Flickr site) has a photograph of it with a caption saying it “is expected to be completed this week.” (The city’s property records give a construction date of 1964.) The caption goes on to say “It is the largest building of its kind in the Lansing area.” In the photograph it looks just as it does now (minus some rust stains), proving the vintage of the giant caduceus, if there were any doubt. It does not appear to have been a Sparrow property at the start. I’m not sure when Sparrow acquired it.

Looking southwest at the Medical Arts Building. The stamp is located just past the tree whose branch can be seen on the right.

The stamp is from BBRPCI, who have stamped quite a lot of sidewalk on this part of Michigan Avenue. I was hoping to find a stamp contemporary to the building, but no such luck. There are a few blocks of especially coarse concrete that look different from and older than most of the surrounding sidewalk, so maybe those are remnants of the original construction.

Looking west on Michigan. The stamp is on the lower left block, facing the other way. Note the two coarser blocks left and right of center.

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Leslie St., E.R. Premoe, 1988

I found this nice example of an E.R. Premoe stamp, and a less nice amount of broken glass, on the sidewalk on the east side of Leslie Street between Elizabeth and the dead end above I-496.

The stamp is in front of a vacant lot. The house on the lot was demolished in 2014.

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N. Magnolia Ave., Barnhart & Sons, 1988

What do we have here, on the west side of North Magnolia Avenue between Vine and Fernwood? It’s kind of a mess. The date is upside down, and then the name is stamped twice, presumably because the first one didn’t come out as well as they hoped.

Barnhart, I think you need to have a word with your sons.

Looking north on North Magnolia. Fernwood is in view.