By JULIE CARLE
BG Independent News
A vintage light that was destined for the junkyard more than 50 years ago has been spiffed up and returned to its original home thanks to a Bowling Green family.
Hal “Bill” Lee saved the light from a scrap pile outside the Bowling Green Post Office when the North Main Street building was being renovated in the mid- to late-1960s. Lee, who had been working at the post office since 1955, thought the light would work perfectly over a game table in the basement of the Klotz Road home he and his wife, Mary, built to raise their family.
Over the years and after he retired from the post office in 1988, Lee wasn’t going to his home basement as much to work in the workshop. The game room wasn’t used as much either with his children grown, and he knew they didn’t have any place to put the historic light.
“As time went on, I got to thinking maybe the historical society would be interested in the light. Then, when I saw the city was doing such an amazing job renovating the former post office building, I thoughy maybe they might have a use for it there,” he said.
A conversation with his niece Louise Estep, who works for the city, “got the ball rolling to return the light to its original home,” he said.
During a recent interview, Lee recalled seeing the beautiful Holophane light hang near the front of the dim, vacuous lobby.
“The lobby was kind of dark. There was a skylight that was the main light (in the lobby). This light was right close, inside the front of the lobby. It hung down from a big, long chain. There was only one like that that I can remember,” though there were table lights on the long cast iron table and two or three “old school-type lights,” he said.
The light suited the architecture and feel of the building, that was built in 1913, he said. According to the National Register of Historic Places, the building with its Neo-Renaissance and Neoclassical styles of architecture was added to the list in 1979 after the post office had moved and the Senior Citizens Center occupied the space.
“We thought the old post office had some beautiful character to it. It was a magnificent building and the light reminded me of that grand, old style,” Lee said.
The post office went through three renovations during the time he worked in the building from starting as a special package deliverer to a foot route postal worker to working in the finance division. In addition to the lighting updates, a new floor was installed in the main work area off the lobby. Also, a highway post office area was added to accommodate converted buses that stopped at the post office after train routes had been mostly eliminated between Columbus and Toledo, Lee said. The “High-PO” addition became the kitchen area when the senior center used the building.
Lee, whose family represents seven generations who have lived in Bowling Green, is glad the light is back where it started. Though he was hoping light would be utilized, “It’s back where it belongs. It’s a piece of history.”
On Nov. 2, Bill and Mary and their family along with Mayor Mike Aspacher and city administration and staff will unveil a historic plaque that accompanies the light where it hangs in council chambers.
