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E. Michigan Ave., Isabella Corp., 2016

This stamp, found on the south side of East Michigan Avenue between Clifford and Lathrop, has many twins along this stretch. I took a photo of it mainly to showcase the sad, abandoned storefront it’s in front of.

The stamp in context (near the center bottom of the photo), facing east toward Lathrop Street.

The City Pulse made this building its Eyesore of the Week on August 29, 2019, writing, “The storefront housed Rapid Printing, Rapid Publications & Advertising and finally Michigan Avenue Printing. Its last Facebook post dates from January 2014 and the business seems to have collected dust since then, with printing equipment visible from the window.” I’m not entirely sure it did close in 2014. The evidence is ambiguous: the building sold in 2014 to its current owner, but a Google street view from August 2015 shows a seemingly lit “OPEN” sign in the front window, though the sign over the awning is gone. It is definitely gone by the time of the next street view picture in August 2016.

A west-facing view of the abandoned storefront.

A [Lansing] State Journal clipping from December 13, 1935, shows an advertisement for Trilby bath soap which reveals that the address was currently an A&P. In the early 1970s it was apparently an upholstery shop.

I love that old-fashioned sign art.

The front windows are uncovered for anyone to peer in, and it’s a bizarre sight. A copy machine is still sitting in there along with other office equipment, and a bulletin board just inside the window has faded business cards and advertisements. There is a desiccated potted plant just inside the door that can be made out, already dead, in the August 2015 street view images.

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E. Michigan Ave., Isabella Corp., 2016

This stamp is on the south side of East Michigan Avenue between Shepard and Leslie. It’s in front of one of the various old homes, mostly American Foursquares, that have been converted to retail. This is a particularly old house – 1880, according to the city’s records. The most recent business here was Kimlan Flowers and Gifts, but it has been out of business as long as I can remember, the awning out front getting more and more tattered until finally the last remnants of the cover on it were removed. The sign offering it for sale or lease has been there at least ten years.

I have found surprisingly little about the history of the property. The earliest reference I can find to a business at the address was in the 1970s, when it was Better Properties, Inc., a real estate business. Better Properties sold it in 1995, but in the the city records, the field that should say whom it was sold to is blank. They have an undated photo of the business as ACD Computers (the predecessor of internet provider ACD.net), which I assume came between the Better Properties and Kimlan eras.

The stamp is nothing too special. There are a lot of Isabella Corp. stamps from around 2016 on this stretch of Michigan Avenue.

The stamp is outside the frame here, but located in front of the front steps of the house.
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E. Michigan Ave., Fessler & Bowman, 2016

This isn’t a unique or especially interesting stamp, but at least I got a moody photo for you. I went for a walk in light rain since it didn’t look likely to let up before bedtime. It actually ended up being pretty pleasant, with a little help from an umbrella. Anyway, this stamp is on the south side of East Michigan Avenue between Holmes and Bingham, in front of Sparrow Urgent Care.

The date on the stamp corresponds with when this building was constructed. It’s part of the shiny new Cancer Center complex, which caused the demolition of Bingham School, as discussed in my entry on another Fessler & Bowman stamp. Fessler & Bowman were evidently involved in the construction.

I find it very peaceful to walk in downtown Lansing late in the evening.
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E. Kalamazoo St., KMI Road Maintenance, 2016

This stamp is in front of a vacant lot on the south side of East Kalamazoo Street, just west of South Hayford Avenue. I didn’t get a picture of it because it was dark, but you might know this vacant lot as the one that hosts the teepee-like art installation(?) made of logs.

KMI Road Maintenance LLC is based in Burton, Michigan. According to their Web site, “KMI Road Maintenance LLC is a hard surface repair contractor serving Genesee and the surrounding counties. KMI Road Maintenance specializes in concrete and asphalt repair and maintenance of both commercial and residential properties.” I’m a little surprised to find their stamp here, since this county doesn’t border Genesee, but it’s not too far away. Interestingly, their Web site also states that their maintenance division serves as research and development for their equipment manufacturing business in North Branch.

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S. Fairview Ave., SC Environmental, 2016

I ran across this “SC Env” stamp on the east side of South Fairview Avenue between Marcus and Elizabeth. It’s only the second one of these I’ve found, both the same year, yet two completely different styles of stamp. I’m glad I saw it, because it finally motivates me to post an update that I had meant to do a couple of months ago. I discovered who “S.C. Env.” is, just a short while after posting the first stamp I found from them.

I was reading the February 24, 2021 issue of the City Pulse when I saw a brief news item as follows.

Entrepreneur John Kendrick Sears, 41, of Lansing, was killed in a motorcycle accident in Mexico. Sears was shaped by his family’s business, College Bike Shop. In 2006, he founded his own demolition company, SC Environmental Services. Sears also owned properties in Old Town and Reo Town.

The Lansing State Journal has a longer article about Sears. It describes SC Environmental Services as a demolition and environmental remediation company. This adds up: both the stamps I have found are in front of vacant lots. People who knew Sears describe him as striving to find better ways to recycle and reuse materials from demolition, and as having a love for architecture.

Looking north on Fairview.

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E. Michigan Ave., Isabella Corp., 2016

There is a squat brick storefront, built in the 1950s but attached to a rambling older house behind it, on the north side of East Michigan Avenue at the east corner of Custer. It currently houses the Applause Salon. I don’t know what was in it before that, only that in the 1960s it was Stasi Hair Fashions, a wig shop. Out front is this stamp.

The sidewalk also hosts a bit of graffiti from Lisa W. of the salon. The building and the house are currently owned by a Lisa and Jon W., so I assume Lisa is the owner. (They don’t live in the house, though. They apparently rent it out, disappointing me in my desire to see an old fashioned owner-resident situation.)

The stamp is on the block blow and to the left of the fire hydrant.

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Leslie St., S.C. Env., 2016

I went to do some more exploring of Urbandale today, and had some nice weather for it. These stamps are on the east side of Leslie Street between Elizabeth and the 496 dead end, in front of a vacant lot. (I’ve mentioned before that Urbandale has a lot of vacant lots.) I haven’t been able to figure out who “S.C. Env.” is, so if you know, please leave a comment.

The southern stamp.

The odd thing about this one is that it’s one long pour, without any separation of blocks. I haven’t seen that before.

The northern stamp. It was filled with water due to the recent thaw.
Looking south on Leslie.

Update 4/19/21: I figured out who SC Env. is!

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E. Michigan Ave., Isabella Corp., 2016

I walked out to the neighborhood I call Eastmost in order to collect a stamp I’d noted on some previous outing. I was foiled in this plan by a layer of snow covering the area where I believed the stamp to be. I gave up and started walking back. It was snowing, and even the relatively clear areas were being steadily covered. I decided I had better stop at the first sidewalk I came to that had a light coating and get to work finding something there.

I love how it looks when the snow fills in the stamp.

So that’s what I did. This Isabella Corp. stamp is in front of a pawn shop (it just calls itself “SECOND HAND STORE” on the awning, though the Internet tells me it’s properly H & M Discount Second Hand Store) on the north side of East Michigan Avenue between Francis and Foster. Before the building was H & M, it was another, very similar-looking pawn shop. It was built in 1952 and its first occupant seems to have been Associates Discount Corp. I went to find out more about them and Googling their name got me pages of caselaw references – usually them suing someone but occasionally someone suing them. I learned that they were an auto finance company, so apparently the building has stayed in the loan business.

I walked along this stretch of Michigan dragging a boot at the top and bottom of each sidewalk slab until I uncovered something. I wonder what the next person to walk by made of it.

Prior to becoming Associates Discount Corp., the address belonged to Jack Royeton Inc., a Kaiser-Frazer car dealer. Once upon a time, Eastmost was the dealership district. It’s amazing to think what it that must have been like.

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W. Michigan Ave., Isabella Corp., 2016

It’s another 2016 stamp today, on the north side of West Michigan Avenue just south of Capitol, in front of Lansing City Hall. There are paired stamps on either end of a short run of new sidewalk.

Looking north on West Michigan. There is the Capitol, of course, and the State Holiday Tree on the left.

City Hall is a beautiful, mid-century modern building, evocative of a prosperous time in the city. I am very fond of it, which might put me in the minority (many residents seem to consider it ugly). The city has not always been a good custodian of it and has been trying to get rid of it. One of the last acts of Virg Bernero’s mayoral administration was to broker a deal to sell it for renovation into a hotel, with the plan being to move City Hall into the former Lansing State Journal building. The Schor administration put the brakes on that, leaving City Hall to continue indefinitely in its state of deferred maintenance.

The northern stamp.

I checked the copious pavement all around City Hall in hope of finding a stamp from its glory days, but to my surprise and disappointment, the only stamps I found were these new ones from Isabella Corp.

Lansing City Hall. This photo was taken from the approximate site of the northern stamp.
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Horton St., Able, 2016

Able’s most recent stamps are quite minimalist, which is a bit of a shame. They do tend to read very cleanly, though. This one is on the east side of Horton Street north of Jerome.

The southern stamp.

It leads off a run of new sidewalk, and it also looks like the steps of the house this is in front of were redone at the same time. This leads me to wonder if it was done at the homeowner’s instigation rather than the city’s. If you want the sidewalk in front of your house replaced sooner than the city’s replacement schedule would have it, you can do the legwork of getting two bids and then the city will share the cost with you.

Looking north on Horton.

There is a paired stamp on the other end. The stamps may be simple, but I appreciate the orderliness of them.

The northern stamp.
Looking south on Horton.