I only found my first Kegle stamp pretty recently and yet I’ve already found another one. The style is very different, suggesting a different time period, but the first one was undated so I can’t be sure. This one is on the southeast corner of North Clemens Avenue and Vine Street, on the driveway of a house facing Clemens.
The leftmost stamp (facing the driveway). Each of the three blocks that comprise the driveway has one.
There are actually four of them: three on the driveway above the sidewalk, and one on what I call the driveway apron, between the sidewalk and the street. The date is hard or impossible to read on two of them, but fortunately it comes through as 1987 on the other two. This confirms that the company did survive the death of James F. Kegle in 1984 (something I wondered about in my previous Kegle entry).
The center stamp.
The rightmost stamp, and the one with the clearest date.
An overview of the house and driveway. Clemens is in view ahead.
This stamp is on the driveway apron below the sidewalk. The date can be seen here too.
I did some more Urbandale rambling today, as I wanted to return to a stamp I had made note of, but found illegible, in the past. It’s on the east side of South Hayford Avenue between Elizabeth and Harton. Initially I didn’t find it any more legible today, but when I looked at it mediated through my camera suddenly I thought I made something out. It seems that sometimes having less information lets my brain find letters in the noise. It appeared to read “Kegle.” Could that be a name?
In front of the vacant lot south of 605.
Yes it could, and it was. Kegle Construction Company Inc. advertised in the February 8, 1981, Lansing State Journal: “Kegle Construction Company has been serving the highway industry in Michigan since 1957.” The ad promises “Concrete Roads, Streets, and Parking Lots” and gives the address 3508 Wood Street (today home to Sanches Construction). The business was founded by Howard S. “Red” Kegle (who had previously run Kegle Dairy Company) and continued by his son, James F. Kegle. According to the May 21, 1978, Lansing State Journal, James was elected president of the Michigan Concrete Paving Association, meaning this stamp has a real pedigree. Sadly, according to an obituary posted at Find A Grave (titled “James F. Kegle, Road Builder, Weightlifter”), James died in 1984 at the unripe age of 44. Weightlifting was his hobby and he won many awards in competitions.
Looking south on Hayford. On the left is a vacant lot (really, probably a few vacant lots) that is (what else?) an urban farm. The stamp is on the nearest pictured full block.
I haven’t been able to determine a date for Kegle going out of business, so I don’t know if the company survived James’s death. Unfortunately the stamp is undated.
A typical Urbandale view. The stamp is on the block of sidewalk in the center of this photo, though not visible here.
