The History Beneath Your Feet: Concrete Curb and Sidewalk Stamps

The History Beneath Your Feet: Concrete Curb and Sidewalk Stamps. . The Lantern Village area of Dana Point has many sidewalk and curb concrete stamps, along with a few dated concrete lantern bases. The stamps are dated 1928, 1929 or 1930. Developer S. H. Woodruff promised paved streets, curbs and sidewalks and ornamental street lighting among the many improvements advertised in his publicity brochures to bring people to the fledgling community. , The map below depicts where the construction companies left their mark when developing the Lantern Village. The area north of Coast Highway, from Chula Vista (Green Lantern to the south) to Amber Lantern, have stamps dated 1928 with the company's name, C. G. Willis and Sons. In the area south of Coast Highway, from Green Lantern to Golden Lantern, there are a variety of stamps and most are dated 1929. There are three companies listed here: S. W. Gleim, Underground Construction, and Western Construction. The S.W. Gleim Company has many curb stamps with a clear 192with the "9” missing in some and still others with the "9” scratched in by hand. It is almost as if this were done early in the year before the "1929 stamp” was available to the workmen. Stamps of the Underground Construction Company, dated 1929, can be found on sidewalks, some concrete lantern bases and a few curbs in this area. , Many of the Western Construction Company stamps are not dated at all. Most of those that are stamped are dated 1930. Some of the sidewalks and curbs that are dated can be found on La Cresta, El Encanto and Violet Lantern, all north of Coast Highway. Samples of the original stamps of each of the four construction companies are preserved below. If you would like to see examples of the concrete bases that held the signature Dana Point lanterns, walk (or drive) on The Street of the Blue Lantern inland of Coast Highway (PCH) and look at the median. You can see these square concrete pieces closest to the west side of the median from La Cresta to PCH. , The City has carried on this tradition by newly stamping concrete on PCH and Del Prado in the Lantern District where concrete has been replaced. In addition, more samples of the original stamps may be found preserved in landscaped areas on Del Prado.