Here’s another reason to visit Tallulahs Kitchen store at 812 E. Broadway, in addition to checking out the store’s amazing kitchen tools, gadgets and cookbooks.

Before you go in look up. Really. Above the store front are historic prismatic lenses which were once installed throughout the nation around the turn of the last century to maximize sunlight to supplement indoor lighting.

This article from Missouri Resource Fall 2011, reprinted here with permission, outlines the history of the prismatic lenses and notes how retailers would prefer better lighting and prismatic lenses offered just that.

So what? Who cares about lighting? Well, as a retailer or a consumer — or even an employee or employee — you just might want to consider lighting. This article by Jeffrey Kahn, published April 2009 on Facilitiesnet.com, notes that indirect lighting can make people less productive, the right kind of lighting can make customers linger or even enter an area and bright lighting should be provided to stave off lethargy and, in some cases, Seasonal Affective Disorder, which is connected with a lack of light.

These prismatic lenses also multiply light, so perhaps some day our energy saving efforts will turn our thoughts toward the past to lenses like those at 812 E. Broadway.

History is everywhere – if you know where to look!