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E. Michigan Ave., John C. Wallace, 1994

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.

The earliest reference I can find to the business is in the 1985 directory of the Michigan Association of County Drain Commissioners. An advertisement places them on Van Dyke in Utica (Google says the address is actually in Shelby Township). The latest I can find is in a 2011 bankruptcy petition by Bing Construction Company of Bloomfield Hills; they are named as a creditor.

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E. Bellows St., Mt. Pleasant, Kastle Const., 1994

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.

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Canada’s Wonderland, Upper Canada Construction, 1994

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.

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N. Clemens Ave., Cantu & Sons, 1994

This is the most recent Cantu & Sons stamp I have found so far. Like the other 1990s one I have found, it has a handwritten date. It seems like after a certain point they decided not to bother getting new date stamps. This is on the east side of North Clemens Avenue between Vine and Fernwood.

Looking north on North Clemens with the stamp at the bottom.