Today’s stamp is new to me (and this blog). I found it – and a few others, which will make their appearances in the next entries – while walking back to my car after participating in the Silver Bells 5K. It’s on East Michigan Avenue at the northwest corner of Michigan and North Washington Square, in front of the beautifully ornate former City National Bank building now occupied by a Comerica branch. The date is a little hard to read but I think it is 1994, which does fall within the timeframe during which I can ascertain that John C. Wallace Cement Contractor was in business.
Mount Pleasant has few sidewalk stamps, but I found this one on a curb cut on Bellows Street, at the northwest corner of Bellows and South University. There are several others like it nearby.
The building here, now vacant, was SBX (the Student Book Exchange) until 2018. I miss the days of independent college bookstores. CMU doesn’t have any now and at the rate they’re pushing “Inclusive Access” (a monopolizing opt-out program that automatically charges students for a lousy online copy of a book) their official University bookstore will soon just be a clothing and tchotchke shop. Nearby this abandoned store are several other abandoned storefronts that used to serve CMU students. It is probably not a coincidence that CMU’s student population is around half what it was in 2014.
I can’t tell you much about Kastle Construction of Central Michigan except that they apparently used to be located on Commerce Drive in Mount Pleasant and no longer appear to be in business. I appreciate their leaving behind some stamps for me.
Here’s a mysterious date marking from the east side of Clifford Street between Kalamazoo and Marcus. The typeface and corner placement strongly suggest it was done by the BWL, but they usually stamped their name into the lower left corner of the same slab, so I’m not sure why it is absent here. Possibly the sidewalk used to be wider.
Sorry for the blurry photo; I’m still getting used to my new phone.
This is another stamp I collected during my brief, very old, walk on Oakland Drive in East Lansing last week. It’s from the west side of the street, a short way north of Grand River Avenue.
It’s not all that interesting to look at, but it is a relatively uncommon variation of Able Concrete stamp. (Able stamps are not quite as common as Cantu and Son[s], but they are up there.)
The stamp is near the bottom right of the frame. This view also shows the mix of 1920s Tudor-or-cottage-style and midcentury ranch homes on the block.
I took a short vacation over the last week to visit a few amusement parks (I have hobbies other than sidewalk photography). While we were walking through the sprawling queue of Flight Deck, a roller coaster at Canada’s Wonderland, my husband suddenly pointed at the ground. There was a contractor stamp. I held up the line for a few moments to take this photo, muttering aloud to myself that everyone must be wondering what this crazy woman is doing.
Flight Deck opened under its original name, Top Gun (yes, that Top Gun) in 1995, so this stamp dates to the ride’s original construction. Upper Canada Construction doesn’t have a Web presence, but Google suggests a company by that name currently exists in York, Ontario, which is close to Canada’s Wonderland.
There is a large and somewhat mysterious vacant lot on the northeast corner of East Kalamazoo Street and South Foster Avenue. The Kalamazoo side of it is lined with a row of handsome evergreens, and that’s where you can find this series of three graffiti-covered blocks. I assume the number on one of them represents a date, ’95, but I can’t be sure. They are facing sideways from the perspective of a pedestrian, as though meant to be read by the evergreens. Here they are, presented from east to west.
I guess Woz had a lot of free time in the 1990s.
Mondo Pavement is one of the least remembered of the mondo films.
Looking east, along the row of trees that unnecessarily screen an empty plot of grass from Kalamazoo traffic. There must be a story here.
This garden variety Able stamp is on the north side of East Michigan Avenue between Horton and Clemens, in front of the Capitol Macintosh/Lansing Central AA building. This is a couple of doors east of the City Pulse building and their respective Able stamps are probably siblings.
This isn’t related to the stamp, but I have a fun story about Capitol Mac. A couple of years ago my elderly MacBook was having issues with the touchpad. I’d had some unpleasant experiences with Capitol Mac, but I felt guilty going to the Apple Store instead of supporting a local business, so I thought I would give them one more chance and dropped my computer off with them. A few days later they called to say that they had a break-in and one of the things stolen was my MacBook. I got paid $300 (the value of my aged computer) and then proceeded to go through way more than $300 worth of grief trying to put my digital life back in order. The rest of that story also involves a really bad experience with the Apple Store, so no one comes out smelling like roses in this. But that’s enough about that. Back to this spot on Michigan Avenue.
Facing northeast. I think the stamp is on the bottom edge of the photo, on the nearest partial block, though it’s not possible to make it out.
This is another instance of a storefront built in front of an old house, common on this stretch of Michigan. The house, as far as can be seen, is a large and handsome Victorian. According to the city’s parcel records, it was built in 1889. The records claim that the office space was also built in 1889, but I find that hard to believe.
Capitol Macintosh moved in here sometime in the 2000s, having previously been located in Frandor under the name Eubulus. Around that time the office building, previously a plain box, had a cosmetic overhaul, giving it a gabled entrance and faux gables on the sides, as well as eyebrow details over the side windows. These elements were chosen to match the house, albeit in an amusement-park sort of way.
A search through the [Lansing] State Journal turns up (ready for it?) two car dealers previously at this address, Stratton Sports Cars (October 1, 1961) and Precision Imports (July 1, 1969). Ads throughout 1980 offered the space for a beauty parlor, implying it was set up as one in the 1970s sometime. I also see from some mentions in the social pages that it was the residence of Mr. and Mrs. Charles Horn in the 1950s. Most interesting to me is that on November 27, 1926, there is an advertisement for Faggion Plumbing and Heating at this address. I previously wrote about Mundo Faggion Plumbing and Heating as the former occupant of the Mercy Ambulance building, but Mr. Faggion’s obituary claimed that his business was founded in 1929. Either that date is incorrect or they are not the same business, although surely they are at least related.
The city’s records have (undated) accounts for a few other businesses using the address: Tax Lien Inspection Company, First Hand Impressions, Advanced Computer, and Creative Touch Hair & Nails Design.
This stamp is in front of the City Pulse office, which was built (presumably as a residence) in 1904. The newspaper moved in around 2011. Prior to that they had been located a little way east, in the small brick storefront on Michigan Avenue across Clemens from the Speedway station. (That spot later became the original location of Strange Matter Café.)
There is a bare pole out from that must have held a sign for a previous business, though I don’t know which one, since it’s been empty as long as I remember. The earliest business I can find at the address was the Sargeant Music Studio, presided over by Mrs. Robert Sargeant, which was there at least through the years of 1951 to 1961. I can’t seem to turn up anything in the 1970s, but then in 1981 it becomes the Gnome Sweet Shop, offering candy-making supplies and lessons. According to the April 16, 1984, Lansing State Journal, the shop was owned by a former Rockette named Carol Emerson. There are hints of trouble in the short piece, as she talks about needing to move to a new and ideally larger location. I can’t find any references to the Gnome Sweet Shop after this article. The next thing I can find is that it was the campaign headquarters for Virg Bernero’s 2010 gubernatorial campaign. Interestingly, the sales history in the city parcel records show a quit claim from the estate of Robert Sargeant in 2006, suggesting the Sargeants held onto the property after the studio was no longer a going concern.
The article on the Gnome Sweet Shop describes the building as yellow. A photograph dated 2001 in the city’s records show it blue, and derelict looking. It is currently a dull grayish color.
The bright blur in the upstairs window is actually the City Pulse neon sign.
This stamp is on a driveway on the east side of North Magnolia Avenue between Fernwood and Saginaw. The date is much more legible than the previous McClain driveway stamp I found on Marshall, but their similarity reinforces my belief that the other one is also 1999.
The stamp in context (looking north), at the bottom of the driveway. Bonus C. Gossett (1960) and Barnhart & Sons (1987) stamps are also visible.
This bit of graffiti is on the east side of Regent Street’s 300 block, between Michigan and Kalamazoo. The date is hard to ascertain. The first digit looks to be a 9, but the second? Up close it looks like a crooked 1. From a distance it seems to resolve to a 3, but it’s hard to be sure that isn’t a trick of the light.
References to various Glatz family members at this address start popping up occasionally in the (Lansing) State Journal in 1956. The last one I can find is in 1964. On April 8, it was reported that “Mr. and Mrs. Noble L. Bell of 1727 Bailey St. East Lansing, will host a rehearsal dinner Friday evening honoring their son, Danny Lowell Bell, and his fiance, Miss Margaret Louise Glatz…. Miss Glatz is the daughter of Mr. and Mrs. Harry J. Glatz of 307 Regent St.” Elsewhere, the same issue lists recent marriage licenses, among them Bell and Glatz’s. There Margaret’s address is also given as 307 Regent.
Because the online parcel records for Lansing only have sales records from around 2000 on, I don’t know when the Glatz family left the house. I wonder what they would think of it now that the current landlord has replaced the entire front yard with gravel so the tenants can use it for parking.
