street name – Capital City Sidewalks

Posted on August 11, 2022 by bunnyhugger

Corner of Elizabeth and E. Erie St., Albion

Continuing on Monday’s theme, here is the other street-name stamp that I discovered on a recent evening walk in Albion. It’s at the curved “corner” where Elizabeth Street meets East Erie, informing the pedestrian that this way is Elizabeth. (Presumably there was originally a matching Erie mark, as in Monday’s example, but I wonder if it was on the concrete block closer to Erie, which has obviously been replaced at some point.) I have walked past this many times, but only noticed it on this occasion because the light caught it exactly right; it’s very shallow and worn. I have actually featured this stretch of sidewalk in a previous blog entry due to its interesting curved corner, but as it was winter then, I had no hope of noticing this stamp.

This curved sidewalk at the north end of Elizabeth is not duplicated in any of the nearby residential streets. Those are all squared off and look newer, so perhaps they used to be like this one.

Posted on August 9, 2022 by bunnyhugger

Corner of E. Erie St. and S. Huron St., Albion

Last year while visiting family in Albion, I discovered a corner (at Erie and Mingo) where the sidewalk had been marked with the names of the intersecting streets. I had never seen anything like it and didn’t see any other similarly marked walks in Albion until now. There was a bit of luck behind this. Normally I take walks at a couple times of day when visiting Albion: either around 5 pm in order to get done before dinner, or at night if I’m looking for Christmas lights. This time it felt too hot yet to go out at 5 and so I waited until after dinner to walk. This resulted in my getting the perfect raking angle of light that causes faint markings to reveal themselves, and I found more of these intersection markings.

This one is at the southwest corner of East Erie and South Huron Streets. “E. Erie St.” was the first one I noticed. It was only after it drew my attention that a closer look also yielded the very faint “S. Huron St.” on the other edge. Each stamp is oriented to parallel the street it names.

Looking north across Erie. Erie’s stamp is on the nearest edge, and Huron’s is on the right edge. Huron is ending here at a T-intersection with Erie.

Posted on July 4, 2021 by bunnyhugger

Corner of E. Erie St. & S. Mingo St., Albion

I was in Albion today visiting family, so this is a stamp I found in Albion on my evening walk there. I’ve never seen anything like it in Lansing, nor elsewhere in Albion (but I have not walked very widely in Albion). The stamps are at the northeast corner of East Erie Street and South Mingo Street, and they give the names of the respective streets. I wonder if there was a time when all the streets in Albion had these stamps at the intersections. It does appear very old. I like the idea; sometimes it’s hard to see street signs, especially if they are placed at the opposite corner, and it would be convenient to have the streets marked right at one’s feet.