I am reasonably confident that this is a Lansing DPW stamp based on the shape, but I really can’t guess the date except that it will be 1920s through 1940s. It’s alongside a business on the southeast corner of East Michigan Avenue and Shepard Street, on the Shepard side of the property. I have done a different stamp on this property before, but I returned to it in order to show off something I’ve stumbled across: real estate listings for properties on East Michigan Avenue.

I’ve looked at the Belon real estate agency cards that CADL has in their collection before, but hadn’t thought to look through the ones for the business corridor. It turns out to be a wonderful peek into what Michigan Avenue looked like in from the 1950s through early ’70s. From it I learned that this shop, which was Discount One Hour Signs for a long time and recently had Campus Scooter move in, was at one time Caruso’s Candy Kitchen. The real estate card, dated 1971, claims the building dates to 1967, but the city’s records indicate that the main building on the corner was built in 1912, and the smaller building to the east was added to it in 1967. The card shows Mr. and Mrs. Peter Caruso trying to sell the business for the reason of retirement. It appears that their listings in August and October 1971 were both unsuccessful. I don’t know what happened after that, but Caruso’s Candy Kitchen still existed as a business for decades afterward. I knew of them due to their presence in the Meridian Mall, near the bookstore where I used to work. They had a soda and ice cream counter as well as selling candy there. After they left, that storefront never got a tenant again, at least not for more than a short stint. Their last outpost was the ill-fated Lansing City Market. They closed in August 2013. There is a Caruso’s Candy and Soda Shop in Dowagiac that is still open, and they seem to have some connection, because in a Facebook page announcing the closing of the Lansing Caruso’s, someone asks about the Dowagiac store and the reply is “it’s just the one in Lansing that’s closing. The store in Dowagiac is still doing very well.”

The only business I can figure out prior to Caruso’s as this location was Deerfield Furs. I see an advertisement for it in the July 19, 1948, [Lansing] State Journal, and then this one on March 11, 1949:

ANNOUNCING DEERFIELD FURS UNDER NEW OWNERSHIP

Expert Furriers and Designers

FACTORY ON PREMISES

WILL OPEN APRIL 1st WITH A FULL LINE OF SPRING FURS

We Honor AO Guarantees Issued by Previous Owners

1700 E. Michigan Ave.

Remember the New Deerfleld Is Reliable