Then and Now: Columbia Lighting

Spokane’s generous hydroelectric power sparked a major lighting business.

One early equipment supplier was the Doerr-Mitchell company, founded by Rudoph Doerr and Joseph Mitchell around 1898. They sold gas lamps before transitioning to electrical equipment and parts for radios.

Around 1924, Eric A. Johnston’s company, Brown-Johnston, took over Doerr-Mitchell. Brown sold the electric lights, heaters and home appliances that would become ubiquitous in American dwellings in the 20th century. Starting in 1934, they equipped new homes for workers at the Grand Coulee Dam, which was completed in 1942, adding power that would revolutionize electrical use and contribute to the war effort in World War II. The company installed some of the first home air conditioners made by Carrier in nearby Mason City.

Company owner Eric A. Johnston became well-known in the business world and would move on from Spokane before a subsidiary, Columbia Electric and Manufacturing, really took off in 1940. It handled large orders for electrical equipment during the war years.

After leaving Spokane, Johnston sat on many corporate boards or in top executive post at banks, airlines, insurance companies and at the United States Chamber of Commerce. Starting in 1945, Johnston was president of the Motion Picture Association of America until he died in 1963.

Columbia started building a factory at 2310 N. Fancher Road near Felts Field in 1952 and would expand it several times over the years. The company was a major producer of the recessed fluorescent lights found in every modern office, store, school, factory and home in midcentury America.

The company outgrew the Fancher building and moved to the Spokane Industrial Park in 1967. Columbia also had plants in Dallas, Los Angeles, Atlanta and Akron, Ohio.

At its peak, Columbia Lighting employed up to 800 workers. The company sold to Hubbell Incorporated in 2002. With more than 200 employees on the payroll, Hubbell closed the Spokane plant in 2009. Hubbell said Spokane jobs would move to Pennsylvania or Juarez, Mexico.

The old factory was later used by American Sign and Indicator until the company left Spokane in 1990. Output Technology Corp., manufacturing computer printers, used the building until 2004. The factory became the headquarters for Mountain Gear from 2005 until 2020, when owner Paul Fish closed the business, though he still owns the building.