Lightolier Building: Lightolier Building

Continental Candy Corporation/ Western Electric/Lightolier/
Jersey City Board of Education

346 Claremont Avenue, near the West Side Avenue Station of the
Bergen-Hudson Light Rail

The Jersey City Board of Education building on Claremont Avenue was built in 1921 for the Continental Candy Corporation. The New York Times reported that the eight-story building, designed by architects Havens & Crosby, would be "the largest, most modern candy plant in the world" (10 February 1921). It was constructed by James Mitchell, Inc., and cost approximately $2.5 million. Financial problems, however, seemed to plague the parent company of Continental Candy and limited its operation in Jersey City. In the mid-1920s, Western Electric/AT&T briefly occupied the building.

In 1927, the Lightolier Company took over the manufacturing plant for lighting fixtures. Bernhard Blitzer began the lighting company. He previously started the former New York Gas Appliance Company in the Bowery section of New York City in 1904. An Austrian immigrant, Blitzer learned about the retail trade industry by selling red suspenders from a pushcart. A keen observer of lighting innovations, he forecasts the popularity of the electric light bulb over gas lighting fixtures. Hedging his bets, his company sold gas and electrical fixtures until 1914, when he settled on the future of electricity.

The company changed its name to Lightolier in 1918/1919 from a combination of the terms "light" and "chandelier" and moved into the Claremont Avenue building. Blitzer's son Moses formed a subsidiary of Lightolier under the name Corona for the production of lighting products and shades for lighting fixtures. The first shades with tasseled fringe, designed by a Swedish-born Thure Dahl, were an immediate success. The company also produced a series of Da-Ray pendants and torchieres in the 1920s. In 1924, "The Charm of a Light-Conditioned Home" pamphlet helped to market Lightolier products with information about home lighting.

Moses Blitzer ran Lightolier after it moved to Jersey City and relocated its showroom to 36th Street in New York City in 1934. During the World War II era, fluorescent lighting contributed to Lightolier's expansion producing fixtures for commercial and institutional lighting. In 1958, its ceiling fixtures were installed in the historic minimalist landmark Seagram Building in New York City by architects Ludwig Mies van der Rohe and Philip Johnson. Lytespan track lighting, developed in 1962, became a signature product for the company. In the 1980s and 1990s, Lightolier advanced into digital dimmers and lighting and energy controls.

Lightolier went public in 1969 and was purchased by Bairnco for $47 million in 1981. It had 700 employees at its Jersey City headquarters and factories and warehouses in ten cities. As part of its corporate restructuring, Lightolier left Jersey City for its new Lightolier/Genlyte headquarters at Secaucus Mill Creek Drive, built by Hartz Mountain Industries in 1986. Lightolier joined the flagship division of The Genlyte Thomas Group LLC, a publicly-traded company, in 1998. In 2008, Royal Phillips bought the Genlyte Group.

The Jersey City Board of Education purchased the building for its administrative offices in 1986.

"Genlyte in the Mood to Brighten Lighting Arena." Newark Star Ledger 18 December 1988.
"Lightolier's Aim Is to Be Number One." Jersey Journal 3 February 1986.
"Lightolier Is Stronger after Takeover." Jersey Journal 8 March 1982.
"Plan to Reorganize Continental Candy." New York Times 11 October 1921.
"Ryan's Candy Co. Sued in Bankruptcy." New York Times 10 February 1921.