My apologies for disappearing last week (if anyone noticed). It’s gotten warm enough to see the sidewalks again so here’s a fairly uneventful curiosity I noticed over in the Midway subdivision: two Able Concrete stamps, done the same year, but in two different styles.
The semicircular one is on the house’s driveway, and the plain one is on the front walk. I have to guess they were done on two different occasions, because the alternative is that they brought two different stamps with them just for variety’s sake. As fun as that idea is, it doesn’t seem likely.
This is on the north side of Lasalle Gardens between Kipling and Midvale.
This is the newest stamp I saw on my recent brief (and very cold) walk on Oakland Drive in East Lansing. It’s on the west side of the street between Grand River and Roseland. The Able stamp is ordinary enough, but it’s a date style I don’t think I’ve seen them use, or at least, not so often.
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.
This is the last of the stamps I collected in my sweep of Downer between Woodruff and Hopkins. This one is on the east side of the street.
The block turned out to be a disappointment. Most of the sidewalk looked to be the same age and composition, but was unstamped, suggesting that none of it was properly marked when the subdivision was developed. Almost all of the newer-looking blocks are Able 2002 stamps like this one, except for the 2019 Eastlund stamps on the corner of Able and Hopkins and one extremely worn Moore and Trosper stamp from (if I read it right) the 1990s.
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 pair of stamps is in front of the building that houses The People’s Kitchen on the south side of East Michigan Avenue between Charles and Detroit. I previously covered a Hanneman stamp near these. The east side of the building is occupied by The People’s Kitchen; the west side currently houses JWR Health Services.
The eastern stamp. The Hanneman stamp is just out of frame below this, facing the other way.
The eastern stamp, and a pleasantly weathered bench.
The western stamp.
The western stamp in context, and JWR Health Services.
I found this a bit curious, curious enough to feature it, though your mileage may vary. I have noted before that Able Concrete has used a few different stamps that I have found. What’s odd here is that this cluster of new-looking cement (on the west side of Lathrop St. between Marcus and Elizabeth) has Able stamps of two different varieties despite being the same year. There is one on the sidewalk, then a different one on the driveway and the driveway apron.
The stamp on the sidewalk. There isn’t a paired one on the other end of the work.
I suppose it’s possible that they were done at different times in the same year and they switched stamps between them, but it sure looks like a cluster that was probably all done at once. It’s as though they wanted to use a fancier stamp for the driveway than for the sidewalk.
The driveway stamp.
Another interesting choice is that the driveway apron stamp faces the street rather than the sidewalk. Other driveway apron stamps I have looked at have faced the other way.
I ran out of time to seek out a more interesting stamp as it’s crunch time at work, so I thought I would just throw up this Able stamp with apologies. But then I figured I should at least give you a few details about the building it’s in front of. Whoops; went and ate up a bunch of time by discovering something interesting, again. First things first: here’s the pair of stamps, on the east side of Regent Street between Michigan and Kalamazoo (the 100 block).
The northern stamp.
The southern stamp, a few blocks away.
The stamps are in front of the Regent Place Apartments, a small apartment building that is the northernmost property on the east side of Regent. I have walked past these apartments countless times, starting back when I used to walk to the bus stop all the time to get to work. They were harder to date than the aggressively 1960s apartment block next door (about which more in a later entry, I’m sure). I went to the city’s property records to see when they were built. I had a bit of a shock.
Regent Place Apartments.
These apartments, which in my mind have just “always been here,” were built in 1999. The same year I moved to town (and the same year as these stamps, which is probably not a coincidence). I could hardly imagine the street without them. I began searching the Lansing State Journal records to see what was there before and came up with nothing. Searching an address usually yields at least something: old wedding announcements, for instance, or previous businesses. I could not find anything earlier for this address than some classified advertisements from April 1999 promising “BRAND NEW!” units. Evidently, Regent Place Apartments arrived in Lansing only a few months before I did. I was startled by this revelation.
The northern stamp in context.
When I could not find anything else about this address on Regent Street, I began to suspect that the previous house or houses on this lot were numbered something different, and began trying a few guesses, also unsuccessfully. I could have saved myself a lot time if I had found the landlord’s Web site sooner. It turns out they have a short history of the property and according to their research, no house was ever on the lot. Prior to the construction of Regent Place, it was a parking lot for the apartments next door. It also served as overflow parking for the Pagoda restaurant. And, it says, “According to legend a Mr. Parsons who owned the business at the corner of Regent and Michigan in the early 1970s used to land his helicopter, with some difficulty on this site.” I’m not sure what business that would be. I assume it refers to the east corner, which was an A&P for a long time and as late as the 1960s, but that seems to have gone away before the 1970s.
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.
