Our first “hidden gem” in our backyard for May’s National Historic Preservation Month is Olde Mill Lighting – and we were lucky enough to score an inside peek at their handcrafted smithery process.
Located on an 18th century miller’s plantation on Strasburg Pike, Olde Mill Lighting is part of a family of home enhancement shoppes that resides in a bank barn and stone farmhouse restored by founding patriarch Jerry. Jerry and his wife are now retired, but the family business carries on with daughter Tina now managing the operations.
Relying on the expertise and craftsmanship of their tinsmith, Olde Mill Lighting offers a wide range of both inventory and custom order brass indoor and outdoor lighting fixtures in a variety of finish color treatments. The lighting fixtures company has fixtures that are designed and crafted right here in Lancaster County, though they do order their hand-blown reproduction glass from Germany when an exact replication of 200-year-old traditionally hand-blown glass is needed.
Exacting and expert recreations of historical pieces is so much their specialty that Olde Mill Lighting has even helped set the stage for Hollywood movies. Their work can be seen in the lanterns on the ships of the first three Pirates of the Caribbean movies, where authenticity was so important that no electrical lighting was used at all. They also provided all the period pieces for the indoor and outdoor fixtures for the entire village setting of the HBO mini-series chronicling the life and political contributions of one of our Founding Fathers in John Adams.
“We were recently contacted about reproducing a huge period light from the White House for an Abe Lincoln movie currently being made, but we just couldn’t do it as much as we wanted to – it was just too big,” said lighting specialist Joan.
But lighting isn’t the only thing this family founded, owned, and operated local business offers. “I wish more people realized the variety of things Olde Millhouse Shoppes can offer them,” says daughter Tina. “We not only have hand-crafted indoor and outdoor lighting, we also have period furniture, decorations, gifts, candles, boutique items, and the most recent addition of our floral department.”
Visit their website at oldemillhouse.com for more information.