Historic home and Crouse-Hinds Historic Lamp & Post Restoration Project

A Restoration Project at The Old Pine Manor

Restored Lamp; one of six, 24 foot each

      As it is with any old house, the one I'm talking about here has its' own history. Though all of the stories about the home, the previous owners and changes which took place are all interesting, this blog isn't strictly devoted to the house. In this blog I plan to describe some of the unique projects I've completed beginning with the unique lamp posts found in our back yard.
      In 1997 my wife and I bought a home built in the 1850's. The home was purchased by a wealthy gold miner in the 1930's which is when the lavish gardens and street lamp style lighting were put here. After purchasing the historic home, one of my first projects included the restoration of six, 24 foot lamp posts and eight lamp lights. Two of the lamp posts had T bars at the top and were typically used in areas where more light was needed. The posts were still standing on our three acre property when we moved in, but most of the lamps were taken down by the previous owner who had hoped to tackle the project himself. After looking at the posts, I found the name inside the base cover at the bottom of a post; Crouse-Hinds, Chicago, Illinois. After searching online I found the phone number of the company which is still in business today and known as Cooper Crouse-Hinds. I needed to restore all eight lamp fixtures since many of the aluminum parts and nearly all the glass on the original lamps were broken. After calling Crouse-Hinds, they searched their archive of molds but unfortunately these particular molds were destroyed. The company does have other molds from the same time period (circa 1936) for lamps which were more widely used.The 24 foot lamp posts and fixtures were typically used as street lights, according to the person I spoke with at Crouse-Hinds. I'm still searching for a collector or salvage restoration company which owns a few of the lamp fixtures, but this didn't stop the project from being completed. The representative from Crouse Hinds also said the T bars are now more rare than the lamp fixtures because they could be used universally as most of their lights will fit on their lights.

One option to the project would have been to use lamps which were similar, or custom made, though the cost of $1,200 each for the lamp alone. I decided to restore the six posts and six existing lamps while storing the T bars in hopes of finding two more lamps at a later date.

Using a man-lift I removed the lamp fixtures and T bars which were still standing on the 24 foot posts in our back yard. I unbolted the six posts from the concrete base where they stood,  put a rope around the top, then lowered the posts to the ground using a man-lift. I rested the posts on wood blocks and sandblasted the  posts. Because there were so many layers of paint on the posts, I had to use sand and took the posts down to white metal. I used Rust-Oleum oil based primer to avoid the possibility of rusting, then took a lamp in to the paint store to get the original color for the final coat of oil-based paint.

After removing the six foundations because the anchor bolts were rusted, I put new cement foundations in which were one cubic yard each. PVC conduit was put in to the base to allow for the new electrical wiring which was installed through trenches I dug from light to light.

The lamps themselves were totally disassembled and the metal parts sandblasted in the same manner as the lamp posts. Taking one of the original lamp glass panes in to a local glass shop for those which needed replaced, I was impressed at how closely they were able to match the glass texture which has an unusual rough finish. I installed all new brass hardware. Finishing up the lamps meant new electrical lamp sockets had to be integrated as the original lamps had large bulbs which are no longer used. I liked the way the old bulbs looked, so I salvaged one of them.

Using the lift to put the posts back on the base was more difficult than taking the posts down. Lining up the base to the anchor bolts from 24 feet in the air proved to be a challenge. Being a perfectionist and wanting to protect my work, I was careful not to scratch the posts during this process.

The 110 voltage wiring was attached to the lamp before setting it to the post. Thirty feet of wiring was fed down through the post and connected to the wire in the PVC conduit at the base or bottom of the lamp.
The lamp fixture was set on the post then with a 3/8" brass set screw.

For the first time in over 50 years the lights in the yard of what was known as The Old Pine Manor are up and working again. All six posts are restored using the the original parts as much as possible and in working order, along with six of the lamps. Our home was built in the late 1850's, consequently many locals either had relatives who lived here or some lived here themselves. When the lights lit up again for the first time a man in his seventies came by to tell me that he was one of the few who remembered the last time those lights were lit. A historic home can be either a treasure trove or a mountain of work, depending on how you look at it.

This is a brief overview of one of many restoration projects. My degree is in economics and I spent my first professional years in banking and finance, but growing up on a farm made me the hands-on type of person which I am today. During the last twenty years I've owned my own business as a marine contractor; implementing bio-engineering, installing over thirty thousand feet of seawalls on the rivers and lakes while also completing specialty projects such as permanent piers, dredging and the constructing of an unique bridge. Other projects I plan to share on this blog in the future pertaining to restoration work will include the copper flashing done along a roof line and the restoration of windows, garage doors and wood floors. I've taken photos along the way which I plan to share with the written description of these projects.

Photo of the gardens located in the area which is now our back yard. This photo was taken around 1936

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