Posted on by bunnyhugger

Albion Municipal Code on Sidewalks

I haven’t had time to get any sidewalk stamps recently so I’m going to do my usual stopgap post checking municipal ordinances for rules about sidewalk markings. I thought I would check out the municipality outside metro Lansing that I have done the most stamps from, because family lives there: Albion.

Although there are some stamped sidewalks in Albion, they are very infrequent. Accordingly, I predicted that I would find nothing in the city code about marking new sidewalk construction. I was right. The Albion code on sidewalk construction is mostly the usual stuff about how far it needs to be set back from the street, how thick the slab should be, who pays for repairs (as usual, the adjacent property owner), and so on. I did note a couple of unique elements. One is that it specifies the PSI that the sidewalk has to be capable of withstanding: “All concrete used in sidewalk construction shall, 28 days after placement, be capable of resisting a pressure of 3,500 pounds per square inch without failure.” The other is that there is a whole section devoted to doors and gratings in the sidewalk: “No door shall be placed in any sidewalk unless the design and specifications therefor shall be approved by the director of public works. No open iron grating or other open devices or any device containing glass shall be placed in or used as the surface of any sidewalk.” Albion is hardly a city I would expect to be riddled with sidewalk grates, yet the penalties for violating this suggest it was a big problem at one time: you get 30 days to remove the door, grate, or window after being notified of the violation, after which it is a separate violation for each day it remains.

Posted on by bunnyhugger

Corner of Elizabeth and E. Erie St., Albion

Continuing on Monday’s theme, here is the other street-name stamp that I discovered on a recent evening walk in Albion. It’s at the curved “corner” where Elizabeth Street meets East Erie, informing the pedestrian that this way is Elizabeth. (Presumably there was originally a matching Erie mark, as in Monday’s example, but I wonder if it was on the concrete block closer to Erie, which has obviously been replaced at some point.) I have walked past this many times, but only noticed it on this occasion because the light caught it exactly right; it’s very shallow and worn. I have actually featured this stretch of sidewalk in a previous blog entry due to its interesting curved corner, but as it was winter then, I had no hope of noticing this stamp.

This curved sidewalk at the north end of Elizabeth is not duplicated in any of the nearby residential streets. Those are all squared off and look newer, so perhaps they used to be like this one.

Facing north toward East Erie.
Facing south along Elizabeth.
Posted on by bunnyhugger

Corner of E. Erie St. and S. Huron St., Albion

Last year while visiting family in Albion, I discovered a corner (at Erie and Mingo) where the sidewalk had been marked with the names of the intersecting streets. I had never seen anything like it and didn’t see any other similarly marked walks in Albion until now. There was a bit of luck behind this. Normally I take walks at a couple times of day when visiting Albion: either around 5 pm in order to get done before dinner, or at night if I’m looking for Christmas lights. This time it felt too hot yet to go out at 5 and so I waited until after dinner to walk. This resulted in my getting the perfect raking angle of light that causes faint markings to reveal themselves, and I found more of these intersection markings.

This one is at the southwest corner of East Erie and South Huron Streets. “E. Erie St.” was the first one I noticed. It was only after it drew my attention that a closer look also yielded the very faint “S. Huron St.” on the other edge. Each stamp is oriented to parallel the street it names.

Looking north across Erie. Erie’s stamp is on the nearest edge, and Huron’s is on the right edge. Huron is ending here at a T-intersection with Erie.
Posted on by bunnyhugger

Elizabeth and E. Erie Sts., Ghost Entrances, Albion

I was visiting family in Albion and took a walk in the neighborhood near Victory and Reiger Parks. On either side of Allen Street, on the corner of East Erie, I noticed two orphaned driveway aprons. I see these all the time in my neighborhood in Lansing, serving as a marker of where a house has been torn down.

Facing east from Allen Street, south of the corner of East Erie.

The one on the east side of Allen has crumbling concrete barriers in it, suggesting a concern that people would drive into the vacant lot, if not an actual occurrence. Across the way, its neighbor does not have barriers, but also points to a vacant lot. (Oddly, a Google street view from 2012 shows the west driveway with the concrete barriers and none on the east driveway.) The empty lots are both quite large.

Facing west from Allen, directly across from the other driveway.

The properties evidently faced Erie, based on the city records which show them to have Erie addresses. A crumbling, low brick wall edges the front of the eastern property, with a portal showing where the front entrance may have been placed.

The presumptive front of the eastern property, from East Erie Street.

According to the city records, the properties were both sold (cheaply) by Colchester Properties to Albion College in 2007. I’m not sure what the college’s interest was in them. Perhaps they wanted to prevent them from becoming (or remaining) eyesores, since they are close to campus.

Posted on by bunnyhugger

Corner of E. Erie St. & S. Mingo St., Albion

I was in Albion today visiting family, so this is a stamp I found in Albion on my evening walk there. I’ve never seen anything like it in Lansing, nor elsewhere in Albion (but I have not walked very widely in Albion). The stamps are at the northeast corner of East Erie Street and South Mingo Street, and they give the names of the respective streets. I wonder if there was a time when all the streets in Albion had these stamps at the intersections. It does appear very old. I like the idea; sometimes it’s hard to see street signs, especially if they are placed at the opposite corner, and it would be convenient to have the streets marked right at one’s feet.

This is the southern end of Mingo Street, while Erie continues both east and west.
Photo taken from Erie, facing east.

Posted on by bunnyhugger

S. Ionia St., Albion, Eastlund Concrete, 2006

I took time out from visiting family in Albion for Easter to take a walk in and around Victory Park. I know from past experience that stamps are much rarer in Albion than in Lansing, suggesting they are not required by ordinance there. Most of the ones I found were Miller’s Cement, the same one I found during my Christmas visit. I found one other, on the curb cut leading from the east side of South Ionia Street south over West Oak Street. It’s our old friend Eastlund Concrete, a familiar sight in Lansing.

There’s a vacant lot here now, though Google’s street view shows a house here as recently as 2012. They cut the trees in front of it down too, more’s the pity.

Heading north on South Ionia.

Posted on by bunnyhugger

E. Erie St. [Albion], Miller’s Cement, 1988

My last night walking in Albion for a while and I stuck close to the same blocks as the last couple of nights. Again I saw very few stamps. There are virtually none on the side streets. There are more on Erie, almost approaching a normal number of them, except that they are all from the same contractor, Miller’s Cement of Jackson.

Apparently Miller’s is (or was) a rare company who takes enough pride in their work to stamp sidewalks even when there is (I assume) no oridnance compelling it.

Looking east on East Erie toward Darrow and the railroad tracks beyond. There are several Miller’s Cement stamps along this stretch of Erie.
Posted on by bunnyhugger

Curved Sidewalks and Other Musings in Albion

Once again I went for a walk this evening in Albion. It was quite cold (below 20F) but I managed a decent ramble to look at Christmas lights under falling snow.

Unfortunately, that pretty white dusting left me unable to show a stamp taken today for the first time since I started keeping the blog. Any stamps would be hard to find because there was a layer of snow on all the sidewalks. It isn’t like in Lansing, where I was able to just walk along a block brushing snow from the ends of slabs aside with my boot until I found a legible stamp. Stamps appear to be so infrequent in this area that it would not be worth the effort. I am assuming Albion does not have an ordinance about stamping sidewalks as Lansing does. I am still surprised that it isn’t done as a matter of course by most contractors.

It’s the end of a very good streak, but I will keep up my daily updating streak anyway by showing you an interesting couple of curved sidewalks I found on my walk. The first is on the northeast corner of Elizabeth and Erie. I find it interesting that the sidewalk curves here instead of squaring off the corner as it turns onto Erie. I have not seen one like that in Lansing. It would help prevent people killing the grass by cutting the corner, though would nibble a bit into someone’s property.

Further south on Elizabeth, the sidewalk jogs to avoid a tree, which I also find charming. The tree must have been there first.

Posted on by bunnyhugger

Darrow/E. Erie Sts. [Albion], Miller’s Cement, 1988

This was the first day since I started keeping this blog that I wasn’t able to take a walk in Lansing and record at least one stamp. That’s because I spent the day in Albion with family. I walked in the quite cold night to look at Christmas lights on the campus of Albion College, and decided to record a stamp from Albion as a diversion and to keep up my streak.

The first thing I noticed was how rare stamps are in Albion compared with Lansing. In Lansing there will be probably three or four in front of every city lot. In Albion, I walked almost the entire length of the east side of Darrow Street without finding a single one. I presume that means Albion does not have an ordinance mandating them. I finally found this one alongside the very set-back house on East Erie Street, at the northern extent of Darrow. Unfortunately, at least under camera flash, it is illegible.

The less legible stamp, on the northern end of the east side of Darrow Street.

Fortunately, I turned the corner onto Erie and there was a similar one, probably the other half of a pair, that was readable enough. The date is a little questionable but I will stand by 1988. The company, Miller’s Cement in Jackson, is one I have not seen in Lansing, and no longer seems to be in business.

The probably paired stamp on Erie.