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E. Kalamazoo St., Cantu & Sons, 1988

This very worn Cantu & Sons stamp is located on the south side of East Kalamazoo Street between Clemens and Regent (pretty close to Clemens). It’s the only stamp I can find on the stretch of sidewalk in front of King World. The date is extremely hard to read in the photo, but in person it is just possible to make it out as 1988.

It’s in front of King World, which is an eccentric combination of a convenience/party store and a beauty and barber supply shop. When I first moved to town in the summer of 1999, this building was empty, but it was still easy to see that its most recent occupant had been a coin laundry. About a year later King World moved in.

Taken from the corner of S. Clemens and E. Kalamazoo.

The building dates from 1962. I can find advertisements for a Norge Village laundromat at that address in the 1970s, and most likely it was built originally as part of that chain, which was booming by 1962. Norge Village is famous among fans of old signs and the like for its lit-up, polka-dotted globe signs, popularly called “Norge Balls.”

It apparently remained a laundry through at least one changeover, as it appears in the December 30, 1989, Lansing State Journal new businesses listings as Kalamazoo St. Laundry. The last reference I can find to a laundry business there is in a sidebar of “Unsolved Fires of 1991” accompanying an article (“Fatal Fire Remains Unsolved”) on page 1B of the January 15, 1992, Lansing State Journal. The list includes “September 30 – Fire in laundry dryer at 1918 E. Kalamazoo” and honestly, that one really sounds like it solved itself.

Advertisements trying to sell the building (no mention of a laundry business) start showing up in 1996, and then again in 1998. Whether it was used for anything during that time period is not clear but seems doubtful. The sale to King World is recorded in the city’s online records in July 2000.

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Regent St., United, 1988

“Another Regent Street stamp?” you say. Ah, but it’s the other Regent Street this time, the Regent that resumes south of I-496, in the Potter-Walsh neighborhood. This stamp is on the west side of Regent between Perkins and the southern dead end, along with a couple of others from the same company that are less legible.

I walked over the Aurelius Road overpass to take a last few photos of the railroad bridge before construction begins in earnest. The sidewalk has been officially closed for a day, but I figured not too much had probably happened yet and I could get away with one illicit trip onto the bridge. As a side trip, I went down the sidewalk that cuts from Aurelius to Clemens, into Potter-Walsh, and took these photos.

Looking north on Regent. The other two United stamps in the vicinity are near the other end of this house’s lot.

Unfortunately I can’t be enlightening about who United was. A few contractors with some variation of the name “United” show up in searches, but none located in mid-Michigan and none with a specialization in concrete.

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Leslie St., Cantu & Sons, 1988

Yes, it’s the blog’s bread and butter, a Cantu & Sons stamp. It must have been a real sight to see so many sidewalks around the east side worked on at (almost) the same time in 1987-88. I wonder why the city did such a huge sidewalk replacement project then?

Note the imprint of the YakTrax I’ve been wearing over my boots ever since I took a spill on a patch of ice and cracked my head on the pavement.

Anyway, I didn’t have much choice. Even most of the sidewalks that had been cleared after last night’s snowstorm had another fine layer of snow on them. Luckily I could make out the white shadow of a stamp in order to know where to brush the pavement off with my mitten.

Looking south on Leslie.

I walked this way because this house still has long strings of lights on their fences, stretching impressively along the west side of the 400 block of Leslie, between Kalamazoo and Elizabeth. They flash and twinkle and on a cold winter night like this, I’m sure glad they’re still around.

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E. Erie St. [Albion], Miller’s Cement, 1988

My last night walking in Albion for a while and I stuck close to the same blocks as the last couple of nights. Again I saw very few stamps. There are virtually none on the side streets. There are more on Erie, almost approaching a normal number of them, except that they are all from the same contractor, Miller’s Cement of Jackson.

Apparently Miller’s is (or was) a rare company who takes enough pride in their work to stamp sidewalks even when there is (I assume) no oridnance compelling it.

Looking east on East Erie toward Darrow and the railroad tracks beyond. There are several Miller’s Cement stamps along this stretch of Erie.
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Darrow/E. Erie Sts. [Albion], Miller’s Cement, 1988

This was the first day since I started keeping this blog that I wasn’t able to take a walk in Lansing and record at least one stamp. That’s because I spent the day in Albion with family. I walked in the quite cold night to look at Christmas lights on the campus of Albion College, and decided to record a stamp from Albion as a diversion and to keep up my streak.

The first thing I noticed was how rare stamps are in Albion compared with Lansing. In Lansing there will be probably three or four in front of every city lot. In Albion, I walked almost the entire length of the east side of Darrow Street without finding a single one. I presume that means Albion does not have an ordinance mandating them. I finally found this one alongside the very set-back house on East Erie Street, at the northern extent of Darrow. Unfortunately, at least under camera flash, it is illegible.

The less legible stamp, on the northern end of the east side of Darrow Street.

Fortunately, I turned the corner onto Erie and there was a similar one, probably the other half of a pair, that was readable enough. The date is a little questionable but I will stand by 1988. The company, Miller’s Cement in Jackson, is one I have not seen in Lansing, and no longer seems to be in business.

The probably paired stamp on Erie.
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James St., Moore Trosper, 1988

This is my first report from outside the east side. I had a virtual 5k to do which went from the Turner-Dodge House (in Old Town, on North Street) to the RE Olds Museum and back.

The Turner-Dodge House from the rear (the side facing the River Trail)

I took a few minutes after my race to do a quick look around the Turner-Dodge House for interesting sidewalk stamps. I was hoping to find something old or at least a company I haven’t seen yet in my walks around the east side. I didn’t find much on the sidewalk in front of the house (just two stamps from our friends from yesterday, BBRPCI, both dated 1993), but the sidewalk there all looked suspiciously newer. The sidewalk along James Street (to the east of the house) looked promisingly worn, but I didn’t find anything especially old there either. I did find one from 1988 with a name I hadn’t seen yet: Moore Trosper.

Moore Trosper are still in business. They’re a general contractor based in Holt, an unincorporated community south of Lansing. According to their Web site, they were founded in 1982 (making them a young company when this stamp was made) by Harold Moore and James Trosper, and are currently run by Moore’s sons.

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Regent St., Cantu & Sons, 1988

This is another one on Regent St. between Kalamazoo and Elizabeth. Cantu & Sons have stamped more sidewalks in Lansing’s east side (my neighborhood) than any other contractor by a wide margin. Most I have seen are dated 1987 or ’88, suggesting the neighborhood or perhaps the city had a huge sidewalk replacement project at that time. It’s hard for me to imagine now, as during my walks I have seen countless damaged, crumbling, and heaved-up sidewalk slabs and can’t recall ever seeing one being fixed on my own block in 20-plus years of living here.

It’s a little hard to read but the date is 1988, with the stamp reading “1987” and the final 7 manually overwritten to become an 8. I have seen this adjustment on a large number of the Cantu & Sons slabs. You might assume they just never bothered to get a new stamp for 1988, but it’s not so: I have seen ones with a 1988 stamp.

Some of the Cantu & Sons stamps add “CEMENT CONT” as a second line. I can find a “Cantu and Sons Cement Contract” [sic] listed in the 1984 US Small Business Administration Annual Report, with their city given as East Lansing. They do not appear to be in business anymore under that name, but I do find a Cantu Builders on Lake Lansing Rd. Their Web site states, “We have been in business for over 30 years, with our roots in concrete. We have since branched out and are experienced with remodels, painting, siding, commercial and residential building, tile and fine finishes. Although our name has changed a couple times our excellent work and customer service has not.” Sounds like I’ve found them. (Yes, I know cement and concrete are not the same thing.)