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N. Clemens Ave., Bay(?), 1996

I am very inclined to believe that this stamp – on the west side of North Clemens Avenue between Jerome and Vine – is from the same contractor responsible for one of the blog’s early mysteries, the odd string of letters and numbers I first found on Kalamazoo Street and then later encountered versions of in a few different places. The first one looks a bit like “DAY02” but with no spacing and odd-looking characters I wasn’t sure it was a name and date or just a code of some kind. If this is the same contractor, then this is proof that is a name and date.

The case is still not settled. The first one I found had a pretty unambiguous D as the first letter. But then a later one, which otherwise bears a strong similarity to the first, is definitely a B (“BAY03”). A third one looks like it is readable either as a D or a B.

Looking north on North Clemens.

And what about this one? The style is very different from those odd mystery stamps, but the “D/BAY” and two-digit date makes it hard to resist making a connection between them. The (regrettably faint) first letter first appeared to me as a D, but on closer inspection, looks to be a B after all, and that’s what I will go with. I believe there is another one like this on Fairview, but it’s as faint or fainter. I will have to get a look at both of them at a few different times of day and see if my appraisal changes.

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Kipling Blvd., Bay (?), 2003 (?)

This one is on the west side of Kipling Boulevard between Michigan and Vine. Not sure why Kipling gets to be a boulevard. Looks like a regular old street to me.

It’s another one of those cryptic stamps, made famous in a couple of past entries. Now, though, I think the first letter is a B rather than the D that I thought I saw before. That doesn’t get me any closer to figuring this one out, though.

Looking north on Kipling Blvd.

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S. Magnolia Ave., [maybe] unsigned, 1985

Surprise! I felt up to a short walk after all, so here’s a bonus entry. This is on the west side of South Magnolia Avenue between Michigan and Prospect.

There is a date in the lower right corner, but no name anywhere that I can see. Although scofflaws who stamp a name without a date are fairly common, this is the only date without a name I have seen. I know it’s possible for the name to wear away faster than the date, presumably when the mark is made more shallowly for some reason, but if there was ever one here it is completely gone.

Looking north on Magnolia.

Update 12/20/20: I now know that the Board of Water and Light usually stamps “BWL” in the lower left and a date in the lower right. The date style seems to match theirs. So, my guess on further consideration is that this is a BWL stamp and I missed the mark in the shadow. In fact, I have walked this block in daylight and I am pretty sure I remember a BWL stamp in this vicinity, so that is probably what this is. I’ll have to check again sometime.

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S. Magnolia Ave., BdWL(?), undated

I don’t know what to make of this one I stumbled across on my walk tonight. It’s on the west side of South Magnolia Avenue between Michigan and Prospect, close to the corner of Prospect.

My first thought was that the “BWL” makes me think of the Board of Water and Light. Is that “d” looking character some sort of shorthand for “of”? It’s not one I recognize, but maybe. But why wouldn’t there also be a mark for “the” in that case?

Looking south on Magnolia. The stamp is on the closest (full) block.

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E. Michigan Ave., Unknown

When I started this sidewalk project I don’t think I realized how much time I would end up sinking into researching local business history. Don’t get me wrong, I love it, but I also need to tone it down a little. I’ve developed a particular fascination with the stretch of East Michigan Avenue I’ve begun thinking of as “Eastmost.” From what I can tell, it used to be the car sales district. Tonight’s stamp comes from the north side of East Michigan between Kipling and Lasalle Court.

It’s another mystery stamp in the vein of this mystery stamp, but the two of them help fill in the gaps with each other. The faint area on this one matches the Y in the earlier one, and the clear A in this one matches the faint area of the other. Since the other ends in 02 and this one in 03 it’s tempting to treat that as a date. But who or what is “DAY”? And why the odd spacing (or lack thereof)?

This is close to the corner of Kipling, in front of the Avis/Budget car rental agency. The office building was built in the 1990s. The garage on the property (they don’t share a street address, but are part of the same lot according to city records) dates from 1940. I don’t know who the original occupant was, but by in the 1950s it was Hodgson & Osborn Used Cars, as pictured in this 1958 photo filed in the Capital Area District Library’s local history collection. “Note arborist in tree in center of photo,” directs the caption. It appears that the arborist is in the act of taking the tree down. They evidently didn’t replace it, as there is no street tree there now.

Sometime after Hodgson & Osborn, certainly by the 1970s, it became Spartan Auto Sales. In 1981 the address starts showing up in newspaper ads still attached to Spartan Auto Sales but also as the address for Ugly Duckling Rent-a-Car and Ugly Duckling Car Lot. I’m not sure how it was both Spartan and Ugly Duckling at the same time, but that seems to be the case.

Sometime in the late 1980s it became Thrifty and then eventually Budget/Avis. Thus it went through the same progression from a car lot, through a less respectable car lot, to a car rental agency, as the current Enterprise location.

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E. Michigan Ave., Unknown, 1958

I’ve been meaning for a while now to get around to this stamp on the north side of East Michigan Avenue between Foster and Hayford. The date is clear but the contractor’s name is illegible. I thought I recognized the style of the stamp as belonging to The Christman Builders, who stamped a long stretch a few blocks further east in 1960. But once I had the photos side by side I realized they do not have the same shape after all. There are two of these stamps in front of Enterprise Rent-a-Car, one on each end of the lot, suggesting that the whole sidewalk might have been done at that time and they marked the beginning and end of the work.

I can’t say with anything like confidence, but I still wonder if this isn’t Christman. The words as far as I can make them out are not inconsistent with their name and the font of the date is the same. The shape is not exactly the same but the style is similar. I will have to see if I can find any other Christman stamps.

Continuing my exploration of the changes along the far eastern edge of Lansing’s share of Michigan Avenue, I did some research on the Enterprise Rent-a-Car building, 2311 East Michigan. It was built in 1950, probably as a car lot. Its original occupant might have been Harry Smith, Inc., a car dealer. At least I find that Harry Smith was located in that spot by 1955 according to advertising in the Lansing State Journal. The Lansing State Journal of December 21, 1955 (page 21) identified Wayne Foster, the manager of Harry Smith, Inc., as the chair of the inaugural Lansing Auto Show, which would be held the following spring in the new Civic Center.

By 1959, the address starts showing up in advertisements for Red Whiting’s Dependable Used Cars. I haven’t been able to narrow down when Harry Smith’s moved out and Red Whiting’s moved in, so I’m not sure which business was here when the stamp was fresh. Surprisingly, Red Whiting’s stayed in this location until 1981, when they began advertising their new location at 2301 North Larch Street (see page 23 of the December, 11, 1981 LSJ.) The business seems to have finally closed in 2005. Their former Larch Street location is a different used car place now.

Meanwhile, through the 1980s the Michigan Avenue location continued to be a used car lot, first Action Motors and then Riverside Motors. In 1992 Enterprise Rent-a-Car moved into that location. I was surprised to discover it has been there longer than I have been in town; that site just always looks transitory to me, somehow.

Update 9/30/20: I caught sight of this one again on my walk tonight and the wet pavement made some details more visible. I am now pretty sure the second word is “company.” I am less sure, but think the last two letters of the first word are “on.”

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E. Kalamazoo St., Unknown

Pardon the shadows on this one; it was taken during a nighttime walk, under a streetlight. It’s on the south side of Kalamazoo between Magnolia and Hayford.

I don’t know what to make of this. There are at least two of them, both similarly illegible, on this block. D(something)Y02? Not sure about that second character; is it a 4? The spacing looks off. I welcome any suggestions about what this means.