100-year-old ‘lamp company’ in Old City turns off lights one last time

After sitting at the same oak rolltop desk as his father and grandfather and running the same specialty hardware distributor of lighting products that has been in the family for more than a century, Newton Gold knew the business landscape had changed. Many of his customers, mostly hardware retailers, have shuttered their stores and Gold, 88, said he didn't want to hustle to find new ones. He saw his children pursuing different careers. Even a former customer talked of how the economy had changed to rely more on mass merchants than local business owners.