In 1926, the City of Helena opened bids for the installlation of streetlights in residential areas near downtown, east of Main St. It is thought that is when these beautiful Gothic-inspired lamps were placed.
According to period General Electric Co. catalogs, the lanterns cost $28 each, equivalent to about $500 each in 2026 dollars.
Howard Skjervem, a retired 47 years veteran with Montana Power Company/NorthWestern Energy, writes:
"Montana Power installed the lights in the mid 1920’s. As new product innovation happened, the lamps were retrofitted from incandescent lamps to Mercury Vapor, then to High Pressure Sodium lamps.
During the company’s conversion to LED, the fixtures didn’t meet the City of Helena Lighting Ordinance, so we worked with the City to find a close match to them with LED that met the ordinance requirements, which was when we replaced the fixtures.
The ones that were in reasonable shape were donated to the Helena/Lewis and Clark County Heritage Tourism Council.
One of our retired electric foreman, Pat Glueckert, did significant research as to their true history, and found the fixture was made by General Electric. He and another retired lineman, Stan Severin, restored two of them to original condition."
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