After 80 Years, Chicagoland Lamp Factory Closing
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VIDEO: Sylvia Gomez reports.
Jun 1, 2005 4:38 pm US/Central

LOGAN SQUARE(CBS 2)After 80 years in business it's lights out in Logan Square. A Chicago lamp factory is closing, forced out of business because of what's happening halfway around the world.

Many highly skilled, longtime workers will lose their jobs when the factory closes. They're obviously upset, but so are residents who live near Frederick Cooper Lamps. They're fighting to keep the land zoned for business so jobs will stay in the area and not be replaced by condos. CBS 2's Sylvia Gomez takes us inside.

"All of this will have to be scrapped?” we asked Fred Gershanov of Frederick Cooper Lamps.

“Scrap? Yeah, because this type of machinery is just not used anymore," he said. The slump in his shoulders, the defeat in is voice, the slow, pained shuffle of his feet: Gershanov wears his sadness not just on his sleeve, but all over his body.

"It's just such an unbelievable thought that after all these years it's coming to an end," he told us. “You just have to face reality. We just can't keep it going."

It’s lights out for his company, Frederick Cooper Lamps. The proud Chicago factory that makes "lamps of elegance" by hand, is closing August 31st. Everything that doesn't sell will be thrown away. He says it all seems like a waste. "That's why I can't face it. We have bins and bins that will be thrown out."

Basic economics -- financial losses for the last three years -- finally pulled the plug on a business that artist Fred Cooper founded in the 1920s.

“People these days want to pay very little for a lamp and want to throw them out in a year or two and get other ones,” Gershanov said. “We created lamps that are heirloom lamps that people can pass on through the generations."

He wanders wistfully today through the warehouse that used to produce lingerie, marveling at the artistry of the lamps he helped design; soaking in the intricate detail of each artisan: Joel Ledesm's woodwork -- 20 years of shaving oak and handcarving lamp bases; Isak del Gado's shade tuck; Sylvano Salazar's painstaking antiquing.

This isn't just a job for the 125 employees still left. It has been a life full of pride.

"Every lamp has a story," Gershanov said.

“I don't know what to do now,” Alfredo Nava, an employee of 26 years, said.

Even Gershanov played here as a child when his father ran the business. Soon it will be empty, leaving only the thick layer of sawdust that paints the scene like an aging sepia-toned photograph.

"I'm going to be unemployed with the rest of the people,” Gershanov said. “Fredrick Cooper has been an identity to me for a lot of years. It hasn't completely sunk in yet.”

The building’s been sold to a local developer who plans to put in luxury loft condos. It is a plan the Logan Square community is fighting. In fact, opponents are meeting with their alderman with the goal of luring another factory that will bring in jobs.

In the meantime, everything's for sale beginning June 10th. What doesn't go, will be thrown away.