My wrist RSI is badly flared up right now so this will be very brief. Here is a 1968 C. Gossett stamp, like many on this block, from the east side of Regent Street’s 400 block, between Kalamazoo and Prospect. I promise this is one I haven’t done before, but it looks identical with quite a few that I have.
Not much to say about this one; just continuing to plug away at eventually cataloguing the entirety of Regent Street. This presumed pair of C. Gossett stamps (I know it looks like “O” but elsewhere I have seen clear enough ones to know it’s “C”) is on the west side of the street.
I pass this one a lot and it makes me smile. Why? Well, I just like the fact that they apparently weren’t happy with the first print of their name, and did it a second time. I like really neat stamps but there’s also a kind of charm in mistakes and sloppiness.
I didn’t have a lot of choices again tonight, so I’m afraid all you’re getting is a very badly-lit C. Gossett stamp on the east side of Regent Street (400 block) between Kalamazoo and Elizabeth. I think that’s 1969, but I’ll have to check back in daylight to be sure.
Reviewing some previous C. Gossett entries, I notice that they were inconsistent about whether they put the date above or below the name. That’s not the most interesting observation, but it’s what I can offer.
I had a more interesting one planned for tonight but I happened across a small, shivering dog running around Hunter Park. I spent a little while trying to gain his trust, but while he would come right up to me, he would get defensive if I tried to grab his collar. Eventually I gave up, but after leaving the park I ran across the dog again, with a guy trying to use a hamburger to entice him. The fellow Samaritan had the same results as me: the dog would come up to him but if he tried to grab him he would get snapped at. As we stood there talking about it suddenly a car pulled up and asked if we had seen a small dog. We both pointed up the street and the car took off in pursuit, so at that point I was relieved and figured I could now exit the scene. This excitement caused me to forget to take the photo I meant to and I ended up having to just grab what I could since I didn’t have time to extend my walk.
Anyway, here’s the stamp. It’s on the east side of the 400 block of Regent Street (about midway between Kalamazoo and Elizabeth). It’s a C. Gossett stamp. Those are pretty common, as I’ve mentioned, and they are usually from the 1960s as far as I’ve seen. I am not entirely sure of the year on this one. It looks like 1968, but could be 1966 or even 1960.
Now for a little bit of irrelevant reminiscing. The house this is in front of (the steps of which can be seen in the photo above) is one I have actually spent time in, many years ago. When I was first living in town two fellow grad students (a married couple) lived there, and my husband-a-the-time and I were friendly with them. I still think of the house (it’s actually a duplex) as “[Couple’s names’] house” even though they moved out in the 2000s and I long ago lost contact with them. For years, the very numerous tulips and daffodils planted by my old friends would come up each spring and I would think of them. I think a few might still pop up in the front yard.
It was another peaceful night of walking around looking at holiday lights, that is, until shortly after I took this photo, when I hit a patch of ice and ended up flat on my back with numb limbs and fuzzy vision. My first thought was “oh good, my camera is fine” and my second thought was “I hope I’m not hurt.” I was OK after lying on the sidewalk a little while.
Anyway, this one (on the east side of North Holmes Street between Vine and Jerome) is a C. Gossett stamp, one of the especially common stamps around the east side. You might have to take my word for that. It looked perfectly clear to me at the time but apparently the flash was too much. There is a paired one (separated by one block) but my photo of that one came out even worse. So instead, enjoy some lights.
As foreshadowed in my recent entry about Regent Place apartments, I returned to the vicinity to take a picture in front of Regent Place’s next door neighbor, the Regent Arms apartments. This is on the east side of Regent between Michigan and Kalamazoo (100 block).
The stamp is a C. Gossett stamp from 1962. Actually, there are a pair of them, framing a short run of sidewalk (which is interrupted by a later Cantu & Sons stamp in the middle).
This stamp pre-dates the Regent Arms, which was built in 1966, in case that isn’t obvious from looking at it. When I first lived here, it was painted dark brown and had a weathered sign with its name on the front. Later it got its current paint job, which coordinates it with Regent Place but, I think, suits it less. I think that is also when it lost its identity as “Regent Arms” and just got its street address on the front instead. The landlord’s Web site still uses the Regent Arms name. I’m not likely to stop.
I do know what was here when this pavement was stamped. A while back I downloaded a set of real estate cards from the 1950s and 60s for properties on Regent Street, part of the digitized local history collection of the Capital Area District Library. While trying to figure out what house had previously been on the Regent Place site (it turns out no house was ever located there), I discovered the card for a house on the site of the Regent Arms. It was an American Foursquare house, very typical of the east side. The owner was one Ruth Clippert whose reason for selling was “doesn’t need.” The house was vacant. From this I infer that it was an investment property.
(Update half an hour later: I have discovered something that leads me to retract the “investment property” theory. That is this clipping from the Lansing State Journal of January 23, 1941, reporting on a wedding reception held at the home of “Mrs. Martin Clippert” – the address given is the one for Ruth Clippert in the real estate card. Was Mrs. Martin Ruth, or a relative? Either way it seems this was someone selling a family home.)
The neatly typed card has a handwritten addendum written crosswise over it: “Sold 1-5-65.” That was probably the sale to whomever demolished it to build the Regent Arms, as according to the landlord’s Web site, the apartment building “was designed by Architect Howard DeWolf in 1965 and built in 1966.”
I have cleared up the mystery regarding the initial before “Gossett” on those Regent Street stamps: it is definitely “C”. I found this very clear example on the south side of Fernwood Avenue a short distance west of the intersection of North Hayford.
C. Gossett must have been in business at least a little while, as I found a classified advertisement in the October 29, 1949, Lansing State Journal: “Building, repairs, concrete work, and basements sealed.” Unfortunately, nothing else is given besides the name and a phone number.
Rumsey Street is the “other Allen,” what Allen is called north of Michigan Aveue. For some reason, a lot of the streets between Clemens and Pennsylvania change names as they cross Michigan or don’t make it across at all. Things get a lot more regular from Clemens on east.
This slab is on the west side of Rumsey between Vine and Jerome. I read it as “C & F Const Co” but I can’t find any information about a business by that name in that time period. Interestingly, there are several other 1960 slabs on Rumsey but they instead come from the equally mysterious Gossett company. Encountering them on tonight’s walk did give me the chance to see some clearer examples of Gossett stamps and from them I am leaning toward “C. Gossett” rather than “O. Gossett” as the correct name.
Update 9/19/20: I can confirm that it is “C & F” as I have found several other like it (but clearer) on Fairview Avenue just north of Michigan.
There are several slabs by this same contractor, from the same year, on the east side of Regent St. between Kalamazoo and Michigan. (Regent is strangely lacking in cross streets. If Prospect continued instead of disappearing between Clemens and Allen, this would be between Kalamazoo and Prospect – the 300 block.) They’re all very worn and these are the best of them.
This one gives the date clearly, but the name is difficult to read. Some of the others look ambiguous between 1982 and 1962, but this makes it clear that the date is 1962.
This one has the name a bit better, but it’s still very hard to make out. I was bending down trying to rub dirt away from it and feel it out with my fingers when a runner had to veer into the street to avoid me. If he was muttering something to himself about crazy people on the sidewalk, he was doing it quietly enough to avoid offense.
The last name is almost certainly “Gossett” but the first part is illegible. It’s probably a pair of initials and the second one seems to be G, by my best guess. My initial impression was “J. G. Gossett” but the “J” is little more than a guess. Searching for a Gossett in the cement business hasn’t borne any fruit for me yet, so I’m sorry to say I haven’t anything interesting (yet) to report about this one.
Update 8/14/20: I found a couple of other 1962 stamps from this company on Regent and Shepard that are a little clearer. It appears to be only one leading initial, not two, and my best guess is that it’s an O.
Update 8/21/20: I found a couple of even clearer stamps, from 1960 this time, on Rumsey north of Vine. I am still not 100% sure, but I am now leaning toward the first initial being a C.
Update 10/30/20: I can now confirm that it is a C, based on a couple of very clear stamps on Fernwood west of Hayford.