Decorative lighting to add ambience to Warren street
By ED RUNYAN
VINDICATOR STAFF WRITER
HISTORIC LOOK: This old-fashioned light pole in front of Warren’s historic Kinsman House will be part of the fixtures to improve lighting in the city’s Mahoning Avenue Historic District.
WARREN — Installation of decorative lighting on the west side of Mahoning Avenue between High and Summit streets will make the historic area known as Millionaires’ Row near city hall more appealing to pedestrians, city officials say.
Using $250,000 in federal- stimulus money, the city is about to award a $195,000 contract to Cornerstone Electric of Salem to install the lights every 100 feet in the green space with trees between the sidewalk and road. The area is a little less than a half-mile long.
Thomas Fok Associates engineered the project. Paul Makosky, assistant Warren engineer, said work on the underground portion of the project is likely to begin within about a month, with the light posts being installed several months after that.
The fixtures will improve lighting in the Mahoning Avenue Historic District, which contains Warren City Hall (Perkins Mansion), the Kinsman House and other structures on the National Register of Historic Places, as well as the Amphitheater and Riverwalk.
The project was initiated by the Historic Perkins Homestead Neighborhood Association, which says the traditional-style ornamental lamps will restore the area to the lighting found there more than 100 years ago.
Mayor Michael O’Brien said such lighting dates back to around 1850, when the district was inhabited by affluent notables living in stately mansions and homes there. The Trumbull County Tourism Bureau, in a pamphlet it prepared for a Millionaires’ Row tour, said the area was a “Who’s Who” of American industry, commerce and politics.
“It keeps the neighborhood in its historic perspective,” O’Brien said.
The new lighting will match lamps already in use at the Kinsman House, which is owned by the city and leased to the public for special occasions such as wedding receptions.
City officials believe the lamps being installed are historically accurate based on a book published in 1912 by the National Electric Light Association showing illustrations of the lamps, as well as mention in the book that Warren is among the cities that used that type of fixture.
The lighting provided throughout most of the Millionaires’ Row area does not adequately illuminate the sidewalk at night, according to a bid document provided by the city’s engineering department.
“The lack of adequate sidewalk illumination substantively limits the ability of pedestrians to safely walk along Mahoning Avenue during nondaylight hours,” the document says.
The 2,240-foot area also is home to the Warren-Trumbull County Public Library, the entrance to Perkins Park, Monument Park, Women’s Park, Trumbull County Tourism Bureau, American Red Cross office and many other notable buildings.
In the early days of Trumbull County, Mahoning Avenue also was known as the Warren-Ashtabula Turnpike and played a significant role in the local Underground Railroad movement, according to the Tourism Bureau.
runyan@vindy.com