A fascinating question about light poles.

[SWMAP]

Yes, the "carriage house," old lamp-lighter style lamps. They produced an engaging soft historic light -but gas became too dear to rationalize.

The orbs on sticks with electric bulbs were poor copies, essentially bulbs on a stick in front yards, glaring away.

[Honky Tonk]

Here is what I believe is an early 70s shot of an Indian Village house with exactly the type of lamp I was trying to describe in front of it:

Well, that's why I was unfamiliar with them, we didn't have those in Delray. Some IV homes still have a kind of carriage-light looking fixtures on the section of lawn, between the sidewalk and the curb. Few of those are still functional.

[downtownguy]

Here is what I believe is an early 70s shot of an Indian Village house with exactly the type of lamp I was trying to describe in front of it:

That is the type of lamp I was describing that we had in front of our house. Apparently, they put them in some modest neighborhoods, too. We lived near Schoolcraft and Greenfield.

[DetroitPlanner]

That is the type of lamp I was describing that we had in front of our house. Apparently, they put them in some modest neighborhoods, too. We lived near Schoolcraft and Greenfield.

Mr Grandmont #III fancy-lad!

[downtownguy]

Mr Grandmont #III fancy-lad!

Nope. East side of Greenfield.

[DetroitPlanner]

Nope. East side of Greenfield.

Ohh Grandmont #II! even a fancier lad!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3X8istCTeQE

[EastsideAl]

That is the type of lamp I was describing that we had in front of our house. Apparently, they put them in some modest neighborhoods, too. We lived near Schoolcraft and Greenfield.

Yes, I think they were sold to people all over the area who had reasonably sized front lawns. Relatives of mine who lived in the Jefferson-Chalmers area, up around Chandler Park Dr., and in the "cabbage patch" section of Grosse Pointe Park all had them.

It's funny that I was just thinking about these old lights, because I actually saw one still standing [[though non-operational) on the lawn of the neighbor of a friend of mine up in the area across Six Mile from Marygrove College.

[EastsideAl]

WSome IV homes still have a kind of carriage-light looking fixtures on the section of lawn, between the sidewalk and the curb. Few of those are still functional.

You're talking about these:



They were sold to IV homeowners in the early '70s as an aesthetic "historic" enhancement [[never mind the fact that Indian Village wasn't old enough to have had gas lighting originally). The big deal was that part of the price went to benefit the Indian Village Association.

When sold, buyers were told that Michigan Consolidated Gas would to maintain them forever, but after only a few years MichCon stopped servicing them, much to the dismay of the IVA. Nasty letters were written and lawsuits were threatened, but it turned out that MichCon had some sort of escape clause in the contracts. For several years thereafter a couple of old guys in the neighborhood would service them for a little extra cash. But, after many years the parts became tough to find, and so, as you note, they're pretty much non-functional now.

[Honky Tonk]

You're talking about these:



They were sold to IV homeowners in the early '70s as an aesthetic "historic" enhancement [[never mind the fact that Indian Village wasn't old enough to have had gas lighting originally). The big deal was that part of the price went to benefit the Indian Village Association.

When sold, buyers were told that Michigan Consolidated Gas would to maintain them forever, but after only a few years MichCon stopped servicing them, much to the dismay of the IVA. Nasty letters were written and lawsuits were threatened, but it turned out that MichCon had some sort of escape clause in the contracts. For several years thereafter a couple of old guys in the neighborhood would service them for a little extra cash. But, after many years the parts became tough to find, and so, as you note, they're pretty much non-functional now.

Dems be the ones. I was in IV last night attending a function. As I drove home I kept an eye on them. The ones that worked, did give off a certain charm, aesthetically, but they didn't do much to provide secuity-type lighting. As far as "MichCon having some sort of escape clause", REALLY!?!?!

[SWMAP]

What happened? Not wasting gas happened. Natural gas prices soared after the 1974 Oil Crisis because NG became the best alternative to heat a house but there were low reserves then: "America had controlled the price of natural gas since the 1950s, and
with the inflation of the 1970s, the market price of natural gas was not
encouraging the search for new reserves.^[40] America's natural gas reserves dwindled from 237 trillion in 1974 to 203 trillion^{[clarification needed]} in 1978, and the price controls were not changed despite President Gerald Ford's repeated requests to Congress.^[40"

[JBMcB]

Here ya go - the globe is right in front of the door:

https://maps.google.com/?ll=42.41533...190.68,,0,2.14

[downtownguy]

Ohh Grandmont #II! even a fancier lad!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3X8istCTeQE

DP, did you ever get north of Fullerton? The east side of Greenfield was much more modest than west. While I can't say for sure if Grandmont was in the legal description of our lot, the common reference to the Grandmont neighborhood was farther west. In fact, many folks would say the first streets west of Greenfield were St. Mary's of Redford neighborhood. Grandmont was more like the "suburb" of Rosedale Park.

Turns out, Google street view shows the old house with the gas light still standing. That's the mansion I grew up in behind it.



EastsideAl, as you can see, we didn't have a particularly big lawn, either.