The Oregonian

Elements of Style - Lights

Back to school for enlightenment, a Portland store features unusual period lighting fixtures.

Art Deco pendant schoolhouse light fixtures include hand-painted styles and shapes that evoke the romance of the 1920’s. And on a practical level, the large shades cast an even, shadowless light.

They were stylish, sturdy and unabashedly utilitarian. Those pendulous glass orbs went with the oak desk and filing cabinets, the wood floors and dusty blackboards, the scratchy public-address system that summoned us to homeroom.

Back then, you barely noticed. But today? Well, that’s another story. Schoolhouse lights are back, illuminating everything from Portland’s vintage houses to office buildings and Pearl District lofts.

That’s thanks in part to Brian Faherty, whose passion for period lighting has taken him across the country in search of unusual fixtures from the early 20th century. What he found has helped create a new niche in the world of lighting design.
Many of the Sleek and functional wall-and ceiling-mounted styles that he has discovered once graced libraries, galleries, hospitals, colleges and schools. Smaller versions of the same design were used in kitchens and bathrooms, while the really fancy stuff was reserved for living and dining rooms. Originally produced in hundreds of sizes and styles, these once-ubiquitous shades and fixtures were obsolete by the 1960’s.

“It’s very simple, American schoolhouse type lighting,” Faherty says. “When you watch old movies, you see them in courtrooms and in old buildings.”

Guided by vintage patterns and catalogs – not to mention ownership of the original molds – Faherty has reproduced dozens of styles for Schoolhouse Electric Co., his new lighting store at 330 SE Martin Luther King Jr. Blvd. Some shades are hand-painted in vintage colors, while others boast modern hues of lavender, chartreuse and orange.

Perhaps most distinctive are the hand-decorated Art Deco shades, sporting historically accurate designs using traditional appliqué methods. There are art glass shades as well, along with a selection of one-of-a-kind antique fixtures, refinished and restored with modern wiring.

“There’s always been a place in my heart for this stuff,” says Faherty, who also works as a real estate agent specializing in period houses.

A collector of old lighting catalogs, he was particularly struck by Gillinder & Sons Inc., once a premier lighting company, established in 1861.

Even though the company had long since diversified and no longer manufactured glass shades, Faherty tracked the company down in upstate New York. Just as he had hoped, the original iron molds were still there, neglected and forgotten in an old warehouse. He negotiated a price and carted away all 60-plus molds.

Seventy-five years later, each glass shade is made much as it used to be: crafted by artist at a glass factory in West Virginia. The heavy brass metal fixtures – in about 50 styles and a variety of finishes – are designed in-house at Fhaerty’s store, polished and plated at a factory in Los Angeles, and then assembled in the lighting store’s basement studio.
It proves two lessons: Sure, nostalgia sells, but good design never goes out of style.