S. Fairview Ave (Alley), graffiti, 2003

Bored with all my usual walks around the east side, I decided to walk through one of the many alleys that run north-south in between the neighborhood streets. Some houses have their garages facing the alley, others facing the street; I don’t know why they are not consistent or what led to preferring one over the other. I have rarely if ever seen the backs of all these houses before, so it was a strange and disorienting experience, which served to make my walk a lot more interesting. The alley I chose was between South Clemens and Fairview Avenues, and is asphalt. There is obviously no sidewalk, but I began checking some of the driveway entrances for stamps. To be honest, all the garages back there looked pretty tired, and in a couple of places there were mysterious concrete pads where a garage or shed was probably demolished, so I wondered how old any stamps I found would be. I didn’t find any, but I did find this piece of graffiti.

Was “Brain” a nickname, or did Brian somehow manage to misspell his own name? I’m guessing the latter, but what do you think?

E. Grand River Ave., BBRPCI, 2003

Here is a run-of-the-mill BBRPCI (BBR Progressive Concrete Inc.) stamp from the south side of East Grand River Avenue between Wood Street and Fairview Avenue. It is in front of Pattengill Biotechnical Academy, which should not be confused with Pattengill Middle School. Let me see if I can keep this shell game of east side schools straight: Pattengill Middle School was in the new(ish) building by the Armory, having moved there from its original location on Jerome Street (where it was known for much of its history as Pattengill Junior High). Pattengill Middle School closed in 2013 (and now that building houses Eastern High School). In 2018, the old Fairview School, which had been an elementary school, was transformed into Pattengill Biotechnical Academy. I don’t know why they reused the Pattengill name since the current Pattengill is evidently an elementary school, spanning pre-K to grade 6. I also would really like to know what the hell a specialized “biotechnical” pre-K education looks like.

It’s a good thing I don’t have kids because I find the array of schools in the district completely incomprehensible. There are high schools that start at grade 7, “academies” that go to grade 6, schools that somehow aren’t officially listed as “academies” but still have academy-like thematic names, and a very small number of I guess regular middle schools except they are grades 4-6 which is younger than what I think of as middle school. Also even the non-magnet schools have “STEAM” randomly peppered into their names.

Pattengill Biotechnical Academy, seen from the Grand River side. The city’s online records don’t have the date of construction listed for some reason, but it looks 1950s to me. The stamp is in the shadow.

N. Fairview Ave., Hanneman & Fineis, 2003

This is a driveway rather than a sidewalk, but I’ve diluted the purity of the blog long ago, and it’s a contractor stamp I haven’t featured yet, so here you go. It’s on the west side of North Fairview Avenue between Vine and Fernwood.

The curvature is due to an odd little jog in the sidewalk, as is apparent in the next photo.

Hanneman & Fineis Concrete Construction is based in DeWitt. According to their About Us page, they started when Carl Hanneman took over a concrete business from his father in 1953. Of course, that just makes me wonder when his father’s business started. If Hanneman merely took it over, then surely the business itself is even older? They can’t be dating it to when the business was incorporated because, according to the history given here, that happened in 1986. Hanneman’s obituary (from the December 15, 2007, Lansing State Journal; he was 85) just says he started his own business in 1953, with no reference to taking over his father’s business.

Looking south on Fairview toward the driveway in question.

In any case, Mark A. Fineis bought the business in 1988, renamed it Hanneman & Fineis, and is now the sole owner. I find myself admiring Fineis for continuing to carry on the name of the business’s founder over thirty years after it changed hands.

Rumsey Ave., Shenandoah, 2003

This is a contractor I haven’t covered before. The pair of stamps is on the east side of Rumsey Avenue between Jerome and Vine.

The northern stamp. I also got a bit of my toe.

Shenandoah Construction is based in Mason. According to Angieslist, they were founded in 1990 and “emphasize concrete flatwork in the summers.” I am unsure whether they are still in business. They have a Facebook page, but the most recent posts were two years ago and their Web site is defunct.

Looking south, with the northern stamp visible.
The southern stamp, and both of my toes this time.

Kipling Blvd., Bay (?), 2003 (?)

This one is on the west side of Kipling Boulevard between Michigan and Vine. Not sure why Kipling gets to be a boulevard. Looks like a regular old street to me.

It’s another one of those cryptic stamps, made famous in a couple of past entries. Now, though, I think the first letter is a B rather than the D that I thought I saw before. That doesn’t get me any closer to figuring this one out, though.

Looking north on Kipling Blvd.

E. Michigan Ave., MacKenzie Co., 2003

Today’s stamp is in front of the same address as yesterday’s – the Budget/Avis lot on the north side of East Michigan Avenue between Kipling and Lasalle Court. It’s just east of Kipling, close to the crosswalk.

The E. T. MacKenzie Company was established in 1982 in Grand Ledge and still has its headquarters there, although it now also has a few branch offices in Michigan and one in Florida. They offer construction, demolition, and remediation services according to their Web site, so I guess you could say they’re a Mack of all trades.

Notice the style of the stamp. I first encountered it as the new style O & M stamp, and have subsequently observed it in use by several contractors. Evidently some third party sells them using a standard template. They look neat enough, but I would sacrifice orderly for unique.

E. Kalamazoo St., BBRPCI, 2003

BBRPCI (B.B.R. Progressive Concrete, Inc.) stamps are a dime a dozen in the neighborhood, but most are from the 1980s. This one, and a few others on the same block, are notable for being the newest BBRPCI stamps I have yet found. I don’t exactly know when the company ceased to exist, but OpenCorporates shows them incorporating in 1979 and dissolving in 2016.

This one is right in front of the entrance to the former Allen Street School on the south side of East Kalamazoo Street between Shephard and Allen. The school was built in 1913 and expanded in 1926. It closed in 2005 and the building was purchased by the dystopian-sounding biotechnology company Neogen. This was hailed as a victory for preservation.

In writing this, I suddenly realized something I had been rather oblivious to. In my early years in Lansing, I often walked to the bus stop at Michigan and Clemens to get to work in the morning, and on the way would cross with help from the light at Kalamazoo and Clemens. There would be a crossing guard there helping children cross safely, just like when I was a kid walking to and from elementary school. (Do they even let children walk to school anymore?)

One day years later, well after I had quit riding the bus regularly, I suddenly thought: hey, what happened to the crossing guard? When is the last time I saw one there? I realize now what it was. Those children were going to Allen Street School, and the crossing guard disappeared with the school, around the same time I started working a job I had to drive to anyway. I missed the moment when that changed because my own life changed at the same time.