Here is a newer stamp from the city’s Operations and Maintenance Department. It’s on the south side of East Michigan Avenue between Leslie and Regent. The stamp is in front of Heartdance Studio, which hosts dance and yoga classes. I still think of it as “the scuba store,” though.

That’s because when I moved to town it was ZZ Underwater World, who apparently figured that the beginning of the alphabet was too crowded in the Yellow Pages. They were the reason for the mural of dolphins on the second floor. The dolphin mural disappeared for a while around the time Heartdance moved in, but then it reappeared. Whether it was covered and then uncovered, or is on a board that got taken down and put back up again, I don’t know. However it came to be, the dolphins have been back for a long time and serve to remind me of the former occupants of the building every time I see them.

The building was constructed in 1942, making it young for this stretch of the Avenue. In the 1950s and 60s it was Bendlin’s Shoe Clinic. The proprietor, John Bendlin, also lived at this address (above the shop, I assume) with his wife. By 1978 it was home to Michigan Divers Supply. I’m not sure if ZZ Underwater World was just a renaming of this business or a new business. ZZ Underwater World closed in 2013 according to the business that bought their assets, Capital City Scuba in Old Town, but Google Street View reveals that Heartdance had already moved into this building as of June 2011.