This is an encore appearance by this hard-to-read C.D. Chamberlain stamp alongside the former Pagoda restaurant on the southwest corner of Regent and Michigan. I wanted to show how a previously illegible stamp can suddenly reveal itself under the right conditions. This one taunted me for a long time, until one day I had a eureka moment. This is the most legible I’ve ever see it, though, thanks to the perfect combination of snow-melt water and silt collecting in the shallow impressions.
This gives me an idea for my next big project, now that I’ve mined just about the entire east side for interesting stamps. I should go back and check the ones I originally tagged as illegible to see if anything has changed, ideally after a bit of wet weather has come through.
I have walked past this stampso many times, and periodically I start thinking I can almost read it, especially at night under the streetlight. What threw me is that the first two letters looked like “CD” but the entire stamp looked like one word, rather than initials and a surname. I could also tell that the last four letters were -LAIN and I kept thinking it was some variation of McClain or McLain, but those leads were not fruitful.
Tonight I walked past it and suddenly thought if I stopped and stared, this time I would get it. And what do you know? I did. My brain suddenly organized the shadows into “CD CHAMBERLAIN” – though the spacing is so close it still looks like one long word.
Can you see it now? Suddenly I could!
The stamp is on the west side of the 100 block of Regent Street, south of East Michigan Avenue, alongside the former Pagoda Restaurant. There are two of them, but this one is the more legible.
The first thing I did was go to Find A Grave and check for a C.D. Chamberlain. I found Claude D. Chamberlain, 1914-1998, which seemed promising. Turning to the (Lansing) State Journal, I found lots and lots and lots of references to Mrs. Claude D. Chamberlain in the Society pages in the 1950s and 60s. Mrs. Chamberlain was very active with several organizations, including the American Association of University Women, the St. Lawrence Hospital Auxiliary, and the Lansing Fine Arts Council. I also found her obituary; her name was Jean, and she died in late 2015 at the age of 98. Her name (as “Mrs. Claude”) appeared in the State Journal so much that it interfered with my trying to find anything out about Claude. I was unable to find his obituary, or anything about his life. Eventually I found a single reference to him that justifies identifying him as probably the C.D. Chamberlain of this stamp. On March 31, 1957, the name “Claude D. Chamberlain” appears in a list of “Blue Ribbon Builders” associated with some upcoming open houses.
This stamp is on the west side of the 100 block of Regent Street, next to the office building on the corner of Michigan and Regent. Unfortunately, I can’t make out the name, except that it starts with a C and ends with “lain” and is probably two words.
The northern stamp.
I’ve learned to check for a paired stamp, especially when there are legibility issues. Well, I found it a little way south, but it didn’t help. It’s just as worn and it’s also very muddy at the moment.
The southern stamp.
The building this is next to currently houses a few unmemorable offices, but I have always been rather fascinated by it because of the fact that the one-story storefront part of the building clearly surrounds and nearly hides a two-story building, likely older and possibly a fairly grand house. According to the city’s records, it was built in 1924.
When I first moved to town, a neighbor told me the building used to be a Chinese restaurant. This made sense to me as the roof on the one-story part of the building has jade tiles, but I never learned any more about it. While researching this post, however, I ran across a couple of old Lansing State Journal advertisements for the Pagoda Restaurant at this address. That, I thought, must have been the restaurant my old neighbor was referring to. Then again, was it? In a stroke of luck for me, someone on eBay is currently selling a menu from Gallagher’s Pagoda Restaurant. Dishes on offer include fried chicken, roast chicken, veal cutlets, steer liver, pork chops, grilled ham, grilled sirloin, and various seafood dishes. There isn’t the slightest hint of anything Chinese about it. Still, I would bet that a vague and understandably confused memory (or secondhand information) led my neighbor to describe the Pagoda as a Chinese restaurant.
This driveway leads to the parking behind the office building, the former Pagoda restaurant. The northern stamp is on the nearest sidewalk block (upside down).
I don’t know what was here when this was stamped in 1950, since the earliest reference I can find to the Pagoda was from 1953. On April 24, 1953, an advertisement in the Lansing State Journal promised a “KIDDIE KARNIVAL – Special Family Dinner Rates – Pogo the Clown in Person.”
I also don’t know for sure when the Pagoda closed. I found an obituary for Charles Gallagher in the December 31, 1996, Lansing State Journal; he had died on December 29 at the age of 91. According to it, “Charles may be best remembered as co-owner, with his mother, Ida, of the Pagoda Restaurant in Lansing until 1969.” That doesn’t necessarily mean that the Pagoda closed in 1969, but it is suggestive.
Update: I finally managed to read this one! It is C.D. Chamberlain.
