Oakland Underfoot

Memphis is full of sidewalk stamps. I gathered these marks around the old downtown over the course of a few days without hardly trying. Zellner‘s was just the first, on Main Street. They’re still in business a century later.

Ben M. Hogan was a general contractor in Little Rock and Memphis from the early 1930s to his death in 1964.

H. F. Vann’s company served the Memphis area from the mid-1940s to the mid-1970s. They were Vann & Sons until 1960, then Vann for a year, then Vann & Son.

Tri-State Construction Co. was incorporated in 1918 and lasted at least until 1951. It’s a generic name that’s hard to trace.

Milton Israel Angel appears in the papers as a builder from 1955 to 1980. He was prominent in Memphis’s Jewish community. His obituary has details of an interesting life.

I haven’t looked into this firm, which has a hard-to-search name.

You’ll note that “Laid By” is the norm in Memphis, whereas “laid by” marks are scarce and old in Oakland, chiefly around Fruitvale.

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