Richard and Glenda Henson could not have dreamed that a search for a particular lamp years ago would light their future for years to come.
The couple were grade school sweethearts in Missouri and got married 64 years ago. They opened Cody’s Lighting & Repair at 201 E. Mellen St. in the Phoebus section of Hampton in 2000, but the business got its start in 1987 in a Newport News flea market.
The business, which also provides restoration and repairs, carries lighting fixtures of all shapes and sizes dating as far back as the 1800s.
The store is stocked with a vast array of lamps and lighting fixtures including chandeliers and wall sconces, as well as shades and every part needed to breathe new life into an old piece.
The second floor warehouse of the 6,000-square-foot building was intended to be an apartment for the Hensons, but instead got overtaken by more and more of their inventory.
“I equate it to a back lot of a junkyard,” Henson said as he pointed to the floor lamps, chandeliers, table lamps and exterior lights awaiting resurrection. “It’s pretty well organized by category.”
Henson refers to his collection — with all items marked for sale — as more of an accumulation.
“I buy them, trade them, swap them and I’ve been known to pick one up from the trash pile,” he said. “When I first started they were pretty plentiful, but they’re getting scarcer and scarcer.”
The accumulation — it would be anybody’s guess as to how many thousands there are — started more than 30 years ago after one of the Henson’s four children, Terry Shepard, bought a home in Williamsburg and wanted to decorate with a particular vintage light.
The Hensons accompanied their daughter on a trip to St. Louis to scour antique shops in search of the right light.
And they continued with their fascination from then on, even educating themselves on all aspects of the lighting world.
Henson, 86, is a retired Army warrant officer who owned and managed apartments for his second career and then flipped on the lights for his next endeavor.
When the couple entered the business — both already in their retirement years — it was with a 9-foot by 12-foot stall in the flea market on Jefferson Avenue.
“It just kept growing,” Henson said. “We went to four big stalls and one for storage.”
That’s where the origin for the business’s name came from. It’s named for one of their seven grandchildren, Cody, who was a common fixture in the shop.
After outgrowing the space, they moved to their current location and their collection began to take on a life of its own.
“We were looking for a building. This one was vacant, it was big enough and I figured I would never fill it up,” Henson said.
A stroll through the store reveals the “dirty room” where most of the items get cleaned and a neatly organized work area with drawers appropriately labeled to reflect what’s inside including: stuff, weird, loops, flowers, brass, spacers, screws, washers and chains.
Richard buys, sells and repairs while Glenda waits on the customers, puts out merchandise and handles pricing. And between the two of them, they can walk you directly to just about anything in the store.
“It’s been fun. We enjoy this place and it’s something to do,” Glenda Henson, 84, said, noting they don’t have to think about retirement because this is their retirement.
The couple has two employees, Nick McDowell, an antiquarian extraordinaire who has worked with them for about 15 years and Erin Dickison, a self-proclaimed “hands on girl” who stopped in a month ago to have a set of lamps refurbished as a gift to her parents and landed a job, too.
Herman Bates of Olde Towne Portsmouth has been a customer of Cody’s for at least 20 years, following them from the flea market to Phoebus.
“They’re really nice people and their products are wonderful,” said Bates who bought several chandeliers, lamps and has had a few things reworked at Cody’s. “They used to kind of present themselves as a lamp hospital and they do amazing repairs.”
Bates said if you’re trying to rebuild a lamp or looking for original parts, Cody’s probably has the best inventory in the state.
Sandra J. Pennecke, 757-222-5356, sandra.pennecke@insidebiz.com
