Beautiful 1906 Lamp Restored
In 1999 when the addition to the original 1906 Fairhaven High School building was constructed it was necessary for the construction crews to dismantle parts of the original 1906 building. The marble sinks in the locker rooms, the spiral staircase and the brass fireman's pole in the old round gym, beautiful oak desks and cabinets, as well as many beautiful lights were no longer needed and tossed onto a junk pile on Larch Avenue to be sold off as scrap metal or junk. The FHS Alumni Association rescued most of these items in 1999 and procured four truck trailers to store all of the rescued items until we could figure a way to get most of these items back into the high school.
The brass pole has been re-installed (although you cannot slide down it anymore) in the old gym which is now the Library/Media Center, 20 oak teachers desks were restored and given to teachers who appreciated their historic nature. Beautiful oak cabinets were refinished, restored and placed back in the building to be used as trophy cases. The historic 1906 lamp in the photo was located on the east side of the building on the wall of the stairway that led down to the original cafeteria, and it had been unceremoniously ripped off the building, and was rescued from the trash heap by John Medeiros '54. Last year John approached the Alumni Board with a proposal to restore the 1906 lamp and install it back in a location very near to it's original spot. The lamp was a mess, to say the least, but at a cost of $3,775 the Alumni had the lamp restored and then installed in an appropriate spot in the east front stairwell that leads down to the old cafeteria but also allows access to the new cafeteria.
There is just one trailer remaining with some items that we hope we'll be able to find a use for, or hopefully restore and return to an appropriate place the building.