Lewisburg council keeps tri-globe lamps green on Market Street

Lewisburg Borough Council chose to keep 20 tri-globe streetlights on Market Street green, turning down a request that would have repainted the fixtures black and reshaped one of downtown’s most recognizable features. The decision affects the stretch between Second Street and Fourth Street, where the lamps have long helped define the borough’s look and the image it presents to residents, businesses and visitors.

The issue had been building for more than a year. A Planning and Public Works Committee agenda in May 2025 recorded a request to return the Market Street tri-globe lights between Second Street and Fourth Street to their original black color. By April 2, 2026, committee members were still discussing the streetlight color, along with whether the current castings should stay poured cast iron or be replaced with poured aluminum, a change that would make the lamps lighter and easier for crews to remove and install, though slightly more expensive per pole. The matter then reached council again, and the May 19 draft agenda framed the choice plainly: staff could be directed to paint the lights Lewisburg Green or Black.

Council settled on green. The May 19 draft agenda shows the final motion directed staff to paint the tri-globe streetlights green, preserving the color that has become closely tied to Market Street and to the borough’s downtown identity. The borough’s fall 2025 newsletter had already described the lamps as cherished fixtures of the community’s historic charm and asked residents not to post signs on them, underscoring how much weight Lewisburg places on the appearance of the cast-iron standards.

The tri-globes are not ordinary street fixtures. Citizens’ Electric Company of Lewisburg says Lewisburg’s boulevard streetlight system has illuminated the scenic downtown since 1915, when the lights were installed on Market Street between Second and Fourth streets before the road was transformed from dust and mud to hard paving bricks. By 1918, boulevard lighting had been completed east to the Susquehanna River and west to Eighth Street. That history has helped turn the lamps into a Lewisburg trademark, one that appears in artwork, coffee mugs and bookmarks, and now remains visibly tied to the borough’s green palette.

The decision also came against a backdrop of ongoing upkeep. Lewisburg recently said tri-globe lights on portions of North Front Street and St. Mary Street were turned off from March 24, 2026 through April 10, 2026 while crews replaced several light fixture bases. For borough leaders, the green lamps now stand as both a preservation choice and a statement about who gets to shape downtown Lewisburg’s public face.