Reporter's notebook

String light theory

By CHARLES PETERSHEIM
Posted 12/29/21

The blinking, convulsing, seizure-inducing lights on McAteer & Will Estates’ headquarters on Broad Street in Milford have received a lot of comment—not nearly all uniformly …

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Reporter's notebook

String light theory

Posted

The blinking, convulsing, seizure-inducing Christmas lights on McAteer & Will Estate's headquarters on Broad Street in Milford have received a lot of comment—not nearly all uniformly positive—since they flipped the switch on the light show on Thanksgiving. On or about December 19, the building was on the receiving end of an act of vandalism that cut the power to half the lights. The image of an unnamed vandal that was reportedly captured on a surveillance camera is now in the hands of the Milford Borough police.

Depending on your perspective, the vandalous act was either an act of Main Street mercy toward an incongruent Griswold-like affront to good taste and tradition, or a combination of the worst of Christmas bad guy tropes, mixing the Grinch, Scrooge, and Hans Gruber into an act of premeditated pre-Christmas vigilante aggression.  

Some are even saying it’s an act of political violence, maybe not reaching the level of the Munich Olympic hostage episode or Sonny Wortzik’s bank heist in “Dog Day Afternoon,” but unexpected even in Milford’s current political environment.

McAteer’s office is establishing itself as a brand of over-the-top, hard-to-miss and harder-to-ignore marketers. Their approach has earned them recognition as the top real estate sales group in Pike County, and has garnered some criticism along the way.

Their flamboyant Christmas lights took this approach to a new level. Whether that was a new low or new high is being debated.

Milford’s architectural legacy is most defined at Christmas, with trees outlined with white string-lights, simple candled windows and green wreaths, accenting classic architectural lines. Entrepreneur Bill Rosado picked up where former owner Sean Strub left off at the Fauchere, highlighting Milford as having touches of the most handsome streets around.

McAteer’s light show to some was like a vinyl record skipping, long fingernails across a blackboard, or a indiscreet fart on a plane. Kids loved it.

Whatever your Christmas light preference, it’s clear that the staid Main Street of Milford is being tested on multiple fronts that are both challenging and exciting.

Milford, light display, marketing

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