I found this neat, unobtrusive graffiti on the south side of Vine Street between Ferguson and Custer. It’s alongside a house that faces Custer. I initially speculated that it was two sets of initials from two people in the same family, with a last name starting with M.
Checking the property records online, however, I found that in 2009 the house was sold by someone with the last name Lum. So either someone in the house was named K.L.M. Lum, or KLM were the leading initials of three members of the house (perhaps the children). The owner’s name I see in the records did not start with K, L, or M.
Here is a new contractor for this blog, via a stamp located on the southeast corner of Jerome Street and Custer Avenue behind the Church of the Resurrection’s parking lot. It really is right on the corner so it’s impossible to designate this slab as uniquely on one street or the other, though the way it’s oriented would make it Custer. This is an interesting one, unfortunately undated. I can narrow down an earliest possible date – 1924 – but then things get fuzzy.
Most readers will be familiar with the legacy of Francis J. Corr, though might not know it. He was the Fran of Frandor (his wife Dorothy was the dor). He was the original owner and developer of Frandor, and one of his big wins was lining up Sears as an anchor before construction. It was a good run, Frankie. Speaking of good runs, Corr died in 1972 at the age of 92, according to a Lansing State Journal obituary on December 26 of that year. (I note that the person who clipped that article at Newspapers.com is username “mckrill” who previously supplied a source of clippings about sidewalk contractor W.H. McKrill. I don’t know what to make of this, except that there might be some connection between the McKrill and Corr families.)
This photo, facing south on Custer, demonstrates that the stamp uses a pretty large typeface, as they go.
The State Journal of January 7, 1945 has a piece titled “Executives of Corr Brothers Construction Firm.” It states that Corr Brothers Construction Firm had announced the addition of Francis J. Corr, Sr., as a partner. According to the article, Corr started in the construction business in 1911 as a partner in McHenry and Corr. When Gerald McHenry died in 1924, Corr continued the business under the name Francis J. Corr. Then in 1937 he brought his son, Francis J. Corr, Jr., into the business and changed the name to Francis J. Corr and Son. Finally, in 1944 he sold his interest in the business to his wife, Dorothy. It appears to have existed at least into the 1950s, since the May 11, 1956, State Journal reports that the Francis J. Corr company was involved in the Michigan State University stadium project. I assume that Francis Jr. stayed with the original company; the Corr Brothers business that Francis Sr. joined was run by two other sons.
This one is on the east side of Custer Avenue, alongside the house on the corner that faces Jerome. BWL stamps usually have BWL in the lower left corner and the year in the lower right. Someone got creative this time. The two stamps are on either end of the slab, facing opposite directions.
Earlier today I was talking to my mom on the phone and mentioned my frustration that Minnis & Ewer didn’t date their stamps (and neither did V. D. Minnis on his own). I knew they were likely older stamps, as Minnis sadly died young in 1919, but I would have liked to know how old. Well, tonight on my walk…
(Sorry again for having to take this with a flash. It’s quite a bit clearer in person. You can even make it out pretty well in Google Street View!)
I found this slab on the west side of Custer, between Jerome and Vine (just north of the intersection with Jerome). As with other Minnis & Ewer work, both the slab and the stamp are in fine condition. The year is clearly “11.” Amusingly, the first half-formed thought that crossed my mind was “that can’t possibly be right” followed by “oh… nineteen eleven.” The only trouble is that what I presume to be the month is illegible. It is something rounded on both sides, a single digit. It is so worn in the center that there is no telling what. My immediate impression was 9, but I suspect some psychological bias in that. It could be 6 or 8.
As often happens with my best finds, I had already taken a picture I intended to use for today’s entry when I saw this. Because of that I almost didn’t pay attention to it. It was on the street I was passing rather than in my direction of travel, and I glanced at it, thinking, “Oh, another Minnis & Ewer stamp; if only it were dated.” But for some reason I gave it a second glance and saw something was stamped below the logo, and I stopped short, and saw that it was a date.
This raises some interesting questions. Did Minnis & Ewer start out dating stamps, then abandon that practice? Or was it the other way around? If I knew which it was, this could have some bearing on resolving the question of whether V.D. Minnis was on his own before or after working with Ewer, because Minnis’s company didn’t date stamps either.
