Oh goody, one for my diagonal stamp collection. (I like corner markings, for some reason.) It’s quite faint and in fact I walk past here quite often and had not noticed it before. I think the wet pavement and the lighting brought it out this time. The date appears to be 1947 and the name is certainly either Lansing DPS or DPW. The DPS stamps and the 1920s-40s DPW stamps are similar in appearance.
What strikes me as interesting here is that it does look to me like it is DPS, and I had previously not found a DPS stamp from before 1950. I am not sure why or when the DPW changed to the DPS, but it changed to DPS sometime prior to 1950 (or, depending on this stamp, 1947), and then back again sometime between 1953 and 1977, and then started stamping O & M (Operations and Maintenance, part of the Division of Public Service) sometime between 1992 and 2005.
This stamp is outside Papa John’s Pizza on East Michigan Avenue, near the southwest corner of Michigan and Allen.
I am pretty sure this is a Lansing DPS stamp. It’s on Prospect Street between Jones and Holmes, next to the former Unity Church at 230 South Holmes. I like to try to find out what was at a given site at the time a stamp was made, but I haven’t ended up with a clear picture of that. Right now, what’s there is the remnant of the church, which had a devastating fire in 2019. According to the Lansing State Journal (November 13, 2019), the congregation was to vote on whether to rebuild the church at that location or move. Staying would have required applying for a zoning variance, because the church had been grandfathered into an otherwise residential-zoned area and doing substantial renovation would result in losing this status. Evidently they decided to move. According to city records, they sold it to someone calling themselves “Homes on Holmes LLC” in April 2021. I don’t know what they’re planning to do with it, but they have filed for a “Commercial Change of Use Group.” Church leaders made a YouTube video saying goodbye to the building, showing the interior to be completely gutted.
Pardon the poor visibility. I was on one of my nighttime walks.
According to the Journal article, “The property […] has been home to a church since the early 20th century,” which falls short of asserting that this building has been there that long. It reads as midcentury to me, but I’m not an expert. The city’s online property records are no help, since they claim it was built in 2011, which it plainly was not. It was owned until 2006 by the Metaphysical Church of Christ, previously known as the Spiritual Episcopal Church. The earliest reference I can find to the address in the State Journal is in the April 27, 1968, church listings: “FIRST SPIRITUAL EPISCOPAL 230 S. Holmes St. Morning service, 10:30. Dedication of new church home.” This could mean the church itself was new or it was merely a new home for the congregation. So I have been unable to determine anything definitively.
The former church and its sign at the corner. The sidewalk block with this stamp is the nearest full block.
I mistakenly thought that this pair of Department of Public Service stamps – on the west side of North Francis Avenue between Vine and Fernwood – had the earliest date I’d seen for a DPS stamp, which is why I photographed it. Checking later, I discovered I have previously done one other 1950 DPS stamp.
The southern stamp of the pair.
The northern stamp. It’s on the next lot north.
Looking north on North Fairview, with the southern stamp of the pair roughly in front of the house’s front steps.
This is the latest DPS (Department of Public Service) stamp I have found, and the only DPW/DPS/etc. stamp I have found from the 1960s. It’s on a stretch of sidewalk in front of Urbandale Farm, on the east side of South Hayford Avenue between Horton and the dead end. Hayford has lost the last stretch of sidewalk on the west side of the street to the Urbandale demolition project, but most of the east side’s sidewalk is still intact since there are three houses still hanging on to the south of Urbandale Farm.
The southern stamp of a pair. The last digit looks altered, as though a “4” were written overtop something else.The northern stamp makes the decade impossible to read, but the “4” is more prominent.
Urbandale Farm was the first big urban farm project in Lansing. It sits on a site that once held the Hayford Street Pumping Station. Yes, Hayford Street. When I first ran into references to Hayford Street in the Lansing City Code, I thought it was a careless error. But this photo of the old pumping station, clearly marked “Hayford Street Pumping Station,” tells me otherwise. The photo, dated 1985, comes from the Caterino Real Estate Image Collection at the Capital Area District Library. David Caterino, from the 1960s through the 1980s, used to drive around and take photos of notable structures, often because he had reason to think they were about to be demolished. Indeed, there is a photo of its demolition on page B1 of the Lansing State Journal, May 20, 1986. The caption reads,
LANDMARK FALLS
Lansing’s Hayford Street Pumping Station, built in 1932, fell to a wrecking company crane Monday. It is to be replaced by a new station on Mifflin Street on Lansing’s east side.
Mifflin Street, you say? If that isn’t an error, then Mifflin has also ascended from being a mere Street to a lofty Avenue sometime after May 1986. At the moment, all the streets from Clemens east to Mifflin (which includes Hayford) are Avenues. I need to get old official maps to figure out whether some of the others are also former Streets and when they changed.
The fence around the Urbandale Farm. It dates from the pump station days, since it can be seen in another Caterino photo.
The Hayford station was apparently desperately overdue for replacement at the time. It all too often broke down, causing around 40 nearby houses to flood with sewage. It’s just a shame that the new one (a baleful box on a hill at the south end of Mifflin) doesn’t have the sense of style and propriety that the 1930s edifice did.
Looking north on Hayford, with Urbandale Farm on the right.
I found another DPS stamp. Like the others, it’s from the 1950s. It’s on the east side of Lathrop Street between Prospect and Eureka.
It snowed today, so this is the best I could do. At least the S is very prominent!
The stamp is on the next one past the stamp with the ridges. I included the fire hydrant for context, and some late holiday lights in the upper left corner as a bonus. I went this way specifically because I knew there were still some lights on this street.
This is another DPS stamp, on the east side of South Clemens Avenue between Prospect and Michigan. I don’t have much to say about it. I’m trying to figure out the time period for these, but this is only the second one I’ve found.
Looking north on South Clemens. The stamp is right at the bottom edge.
Oho! Now what do we have here? A DPW variation I haven’t seen before – sort of. It’s on the west side of North Magnolia Avenue just north of Michigan. The style is similar to the 1940s DPW stamps, but it says Lansing DPS instead. So, around 1950 Lansing apparently went from having a Department of Public Works to having a Department of Public Service. Today we have a Public Service Department, but the stamps specify O & M or Operations and Maintenance, one of the divisions of Public Service.
Looking south on North Magnolia, toward Michigan Avenue.
