Review of Streetlight Styles

[Rocko]

ca. 1909 is the oldest photo I've seen of a bishop light in the style we still find today. I'm not sure when they stopped making them, but I know the pineapple finial design debuted in 1916. Not sure if they installed both concurrently for a time around then or not.

[MikeM]

Can anyone track down what year the Bishop style lights started going up, and when were the last new ones installed? Looking for the start and stop years. Also how did they get the Bishop name?

Would you consider this a Bishop style?:

Attachment 7105

From the city lighting department's 1897 annual report.

[Rocko]

I'd believe it that they date back to the years before 1900. So the 1897 image [[yes, that counts as a Bishop) would be accurate. The earlier ones have the cast iron bases and hollowed out wooden standards. The later ones have steel standards. Obviously, the early arc lighting fixtures and globes have been replaced with more modern incandescent fixtures and larger mainly non-pointed globes.

[Jimaz]

Read a piece of curious trivia in an unrelated story the other day. The part that goes on top of a streetlight is called a "pothead."

[Rocko]

On Saturday 8/20 I took a cruise around Detroit and made the following notes in relation to streetlights:

The city has replaced all the streetlight heads on E. Larned from 375 eastward. The old lamp posts remain with their pointed finials and graceful curved iron supports, but they all have modern light assemblies on them now. Hopefully, they will actually light up every single night!

It was really depressing to drive down Woodward after dark between Jefferson and Campus Martius and see that most of the streetlights along Woodward were dark. The festival in Hart Plaza plus all the pedestrian traffic from it being Friday night really must not have appreciated the near-darkness along the sidewalks down there. You'd think they'd get their act together and flip the switch so the busiest part of the city foot-traffic-wise wasn't in the dark.

The new streetlights are up and on in front of the new Michigan Traffic HQ on W. Fort near 6th Street. Now, if they could just turn on a few of those other lights closer to downtown on Fort!

Most of the old Bishops on Junction are holding their own, many of them still lighting at night when they're probably a hundred years old. Great to see these pieces of Detroit history still lighting the way at night and adding some historic character during the day.

[terryh]

A light pole on Woodward north of Six mile had what appeared to be a phone box attached on the side.

[kathy2trips]

A neighborhood in LA wanted to reinstall the original period lighting about 10 years ago. According to the article, "Union Metal Corp. of Canton, Ohio, stunned her [[the architectural historian) with news that the original wood molds used in the casting of the ornate light posts were still in a factory storeroom."

[Rocko]

The old bowling-pin Bishop lights dating from the early 1900's have been copied on many streetscape projects around Detroit in the past 5-6 years. The first of these occurred prior to the Superbowl around the Ford Field region. Now, Woodward from 94 south, Broadway, Washingon Blvd, and several stretches of Michigan Avenue have them. They look great and while they are structurally different from the originals, it is a truly authentic Detroit design that looks very much as the old ones do. Problem is, they are somewhat cheaply built [[made in Mexico) and don't age nearly as well as their original counterparts. While a ca. 1915 example might not be able to take the brunt of a collision from a high speed chase just as a new one couldn't [[Michigan Avenue at the Telway), a quick drive down Michigan Avenue will reveal several dozen of the new lights with brackets broken, globes hanging precariously off, base standards broken and missing, etc. And they've only been there a few years. And they're not being repaired, either!

[5speedz34]

Has anyone else noticed the Bishop lamps with the retrofitted bowl like style lamp? They replaced all the ones on Trumbull in Woodbridge this summer and I'm noticing more and more popping up around the city.

It's a shame it really destroys the beauty of the old Bishop lamps.

[Rocko]

Anyone know what's been cooking streetlightwise on Fort Street on the southwest side? From the CSX bridge near Dearborn Ave. to I-75, and then in the blocks across from Southwestern High School? On the lower portion, many poles are now laying on the ground, and many have been removed, some of the really old pineapple ones, and some of the new "cobraheads." On the block from Woodmere east, the old pineapple poles have been stripped of their pineapples, ornamental bracketing and acorn globes, and only the poles remain. It appeared that new wiring and concrete lampstand bases had been laid along Woodmere Cemetery and many other blocks. Across from Southwestern, new streetlight brackets and guy wires have been attached from all the telephone poles on that block. Meanwhile, some of the old bishops on the School side have been taken down. Major lighting project underway? It's CLEAR that the street lighting on this stretch was in desperate need of attention, mostly dark at night and certainly cobbled together for decades. I do think it's sad to see the old lights torn down and stripped of their ornament so unceremoniously, and the old history being lost, I'm glad to finally see some investment to fix the system up. If anyone else is down in that way, please update if possible.

[Bobl]

I liked the old fashioned lights. The ones that worked every night. The ones that, if they were out for more than 48 hours after being reported, resulted in disciplinary action against the employees responsible for maintenance.
Ray and tponetom might remember.

[Rocko]

The streetlight rehab/rebuild continues along Fort Street between Miller and Waterman. Almost all the old fixtures are down now. Some new bases have been laid, and many poles have been places upon old bases. Only in Detroit would "new" streetlights actually be older poles brought in from someplace else with new lampheads. At least hopefully they'll work now. Across from Southwestern HS, there are also some which are mounted on the telephone poles.