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Marshall St., Bingham & Taylor water meter lid

I’ve already branched out into manhole covers, so why not wander further afield? Here is a water meter cover from Bingham & Taylor, a Virginia-based business that manufactures water and gas utility supplies.

It’s out in front of the Light Mission Pentecostal Church on the east side of Marshall Street between Jerome and the Armory.

The church was home to Unity of Greater Lansing from 1968 to 2012. The city’s online records don’t have the date it was built, but the parsonage next door (which was sold by Unity and is now just a private residence) was built in 1957 so I would guess a similar date for the church. It has a 1950s look to it, anyway.

Posted on by bunnyhugger

Eureka St., Carlson Const., 1977

This stamp is on the west side of Bingham Street between Michigan and Prospect, in front of the parking lot for the Pilgrim Congregational church. That’s where I vote now that Bingham (Street) School is gone.

This one is interesting because of its date. 1970s stamps are the least common decade I find (that is, from the 1920s on). There are a lot of 80s stamps, a fair few 60s stamps, but only a smattering of 70s stamps around the east side.

Looking at the church, with the stamp above located to the lower right of the graffiti.

Unfortunately, this is one of those cases in which the contractor’s name is too common for me to narrow down who it is. I can’t find a history of a Carlson Construction company in metro Lansing, though there have been Carlsons in Benton Harbor, Byron Center, Otsego, and Saranac, the last being the closest.

Another stamp in this cluster. I think there are four of them in this stretch.

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N. Magnolia Ave., B.(?) Gordon, 1950

I had been planning to do this one for a while and finally decided to do it this evening, though I got to it in waning light. It’s on the west side of North Magnolia Avenue, just north of Michigan in front of the Spanish Seventh-Day Adventist Church.

This stamp is quite small and located in the lower right corner.

Based on viewing it in better light I believe the year is 1950, which would make it roughly contemporary with (and possibly related to) the building of the church. I am not completely sure about the name. It’s certainly “Gordon” but the first initial could be B or E. In some light it looks more like B.

The Spanish Seventh-Day Adventist Church.

I haven’t had any luck finding out anything about the contractor. I thought I had a lead when I found some 1920s advertisements for the Brown-Gordon Co., but they were advertising delivery of gravel and sand. They show u p again in the October 1, 1955 State Highway Department publication, Compilation of Design and Construction Data for Concrete Pavement on the State Trunkline System. The date was promising, and I was hoping this would reveal them to also be concrete contractors, but no, they are listed only under “Fine Aggregate” and “Course Aggregate.” I suppose it is just a red herring after all.

The stamp in context, near the steps of the church.