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E. Kalamazoo St., McClain, illegible date

At first I thought this one was just plain illegible, but after studying my photo at home, I realized it is probably McClain. I have done them before, and their other stamps have also tended to be blurry. The date is hopeless.

It’s in front of Edge Partnerships, a PR firm, on the north side of East Kalamazoo Street between Grand and Washington. This building was formerly home to longtime business Wolverine Typewriter. I am not sure when they first opened and finally closed, but as they were in this location from at least 1949-2001, their employees probably saw this sidewalk laid.

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E. Kalamazoo St., F & M, 2009

I walked downtown along East Kalamazoo Street to check out the going out of business sale at venerable jeweler Linn & Owen. I didn’t buy anything, but I did see this F & M stamp and, in the distance beyond, the ghost sign advertising three locations of Beaner’s. Today Beaner’s is known as Biggby and only one of these three locations is extant, the one on Allegan.

There isn’t much else to say about this stamp, besides that it’s on the north side of East Kalamazoo Street, east of South Grand Avenue, in front of the Michigan DHHS’s South Grand building.

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W. Washtenaw St., Christman, 2001

I have previously written about Lansing-based construction company Christman. This stamp is found on the north side of West Washtenaw Street between Walnut and Pine – outside Constitution Hall – and what makes it interesting is two things. First, both of the sets of Christman stamps I’d found before were in the greater Frandor metropolitan area and had dates in the 1950s or 60s.

Second, “constructors”? I guess they wanted to set themselves apart from all the boring contractors who go with the tried and true “construction” in their name.

The stamps appear on both sides of the double-width sidewalk. The employee entrance to Constitution Hall is on the right.
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E. Michigan Ave., ACD, 2023

This is the last of the new stamps I collected while walking back to my car from the Silver Bells 5K race downtown. It’s in front of the former Troppo restaurant, now apparently something called “The Gov.” It’s on the north side of East Michigan Avenue between Washington and Grand.

I assume this was done by ACD (Advanced Communications and Data) the broadband Internet company while doing utility work for businesses in the area. And that’s it for my banked stamps, so I’ll have to start finding some more. I actually spotted one more possible new stamp on that walk, but someone was milling around it messing with their phone and I would have felt weird walking close to him to take a photo of the sidewalk, so I had to give up on that one.

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E. Michigan Ave., Dykstra, 2009

Somehow I walked by at least three contractor names I had never seen before on my way back to my car from the Silver Bells 5K. I was parked in front of the Lansing Center and the race was downtown, so that wasn’t a very long walk. I like the lettering style on this one. It’s on the north side of East Michigan Avenue between Washington and Grand, in front of the former Troppo (now apparently something called “The Gov”?).

So go on. Guess what part of the state Dykstra Cement Contractors hails from. Write your guess down. I’ll wait. If you at least guess the area code I’ll give you partial credit. The answer is after the picture.

Dykstra Cement is headquartered in Hudsonville, metro Grand Rapids. They’re still in business, but their Web site doesn’t give a company history, more’s the pity.

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E. Michigan Ave., John C. Wallace, 1994

Today’s stamp is new to me (and this blog). I found it – and a few others, which will make their appearances in the next entries – while walking back to my car after participating in the Silver Bells 5K. It’s on East Michigan Avenue at the northwest corner of Michigan and North Washington Square, in front of the beautifully ornate former City National Bank building now occupied by a Comerica branch. The date is a little hard to read but I think it is 1994, which does fall within the timeframe during which I can ascertain that John C. Wallace Cement Contractor was in business.

The earliest reference I can find to the business is in the 1985 directory of the Michigan Association of County Drain Commissioners. An advertisement places them on Van Dyke in Utica (Google says the address is actually in Shelby Township). The latest I can find is in a 2011 bankruptcy petition by Bing Construction Company of Bloomfield Hills; they are named as a creditor.

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E. Michigan Ave., BWL, 2023

Tonight was Silver Bells in the City, which I haven’t missed attending in years, and while walking between the Lansing Center (where we parked) and the car, I found another 2023 stamp, this one from BWL (the Board of Water and Light). It’s on the north side of East Michigan Avenue, west of the Lansing Center and east of the river.

This stamp matches the style of one I found that had a somewhat obscured date that I took to be either 1987 or 1997. I ended up settling on 1987, but now I wonder if it wasn’t 1997 after all. Other 1980s BWL stamps have a bolder, rounded typeface that I find much more pleasant.

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E. Michigan Ave., Cascade Cement Contracting, 2020

I managed to find a contractor stamp I hadn’t done yet! I actually cost myself a bit of time on a virtual 5K I was doing to get the photo. This is from the south side of East Michigan Avenue just west of the railroad tracks near Hill Street. It’s outside the Block600 mixed-use development that includes Meijer’s Capital City Market and the Courtyard by Marriott and probably came about as a result of that construction.

Cascade Cement Contracting is, as the stamp says, based in Caledonia, which is a suburb of Grand Rapids. According to their Web site, they were founded in 1972 by a pair of brothers who had emigrated from the Netherlands in the 1960s.

The stamp is on the other side of the curb.
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E. Michigan Ave., Flagpole hole (?)

What’s this metal disc in front of the Stadium District building, on the south side of East Michigan Avenue between Cedar and Larch? Could it be one of the holes drilled so businesses could display flags, as mentioned in a 1949 [Lansing] State Journal?

I find it doubtful, since this entire block was redeveloped in the 2000s, but since there are no dates on any of the sidewalks here, it’s impossible to say for sure how old they are. It does look like there is a hole here and that the metal plate is designed to be removable for some purpose (otherwise they would have just slapped some filler over the hole). There are a row of them up and down the block. They are too awkwardly placed to imagine them being used for flagpoles again, if that’s what they were originally for; this one, for instance, is in front of a window.

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News tidbit from 1949

I found a small tidbit in the October 4, 1949 [Lansing] State Journal:

The city council Monday night agreed to pay for the expense of boring about 350 holes in downtown sidewalks for use by merchants in displaying flags on standards in front of their stores. Merchants previously had asked that the holes be put in the sidewalks back from the curb so they could display Michigan State college banners and American flags. 

Most of the sidewalks downtown appear to be of recent vintage, bearing stamps from the 2000s or later. Still, I wonder if I can find any sidewalks downtown still showing evidence of these flagpole holes. I will have to check next time I’m downtown.