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SAINT JOHN - The Shaarei Zedek congregation hopes to make a few changes to its new home - the former Cavanagh's Funeral Home on Leinster Street - such as taking out the chapel pews and replacing them with seats.

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Cindy Wilson/Telegraph-Journal

The Tiffany-style floor lamp that was first placed in the foyer of the building that used to be the Cavanagh Funeral Home will remain when the structure becomes a synagogue, says Norman Hamburg, right, president of Shaarei Zedek Congregation. With him are Bill MacMackin, left, vice-president of Brenan’s Funeral Home, which absorbed Cavanagh’s last month, and Andrew Cavanagh, who once operated Cavanagh’s.

One thing that won't be removed is the Tiffany-style floor lamp that has sat in the mansion-like building's foyer for as long as anyone can remember, congregation president Norman Hamburg said.

"As far as I can tell you, it'll stay forever," he said.

The lamp itself, which was first placed in the foyer by the building's original owner, is an impressive sight.

The opulent stained-glass fixture, which is more than a century old, stands about 1.5 metres high. The body is made primarily of green-tinted glass, topped with a shade made of multicoloured glass circles that recall hard candies or pebbles.

It shines regally in its designated spot overlooking the intersection of Wentworth and Leinster streets, its cord wound securely underneath the hardwood floor of the foyer.

"I know so much about this lamp. I've studied this lamp," joked Andrew Cavanagh, who once operated A.W. Cavanagh Funeral Home.

The lamp was imported from New York by the building's original resident, Charles Peters, who built the house in 1897. His family lived in the house until the mid-1940s, when it was sold, along with the lamp, to the Emerson family.

The building became the Calvin Funeral Home in 1965, and in 1973, Gilbert Boyce purchased the business, which became the Castle Funeral Home (Hillsley).

Boyce sold the funeral home three years later, and although Boyce retained ownership of the lamp, he let it stay in the building.

When the business changed hands again in 1993, Boyce had the lamp removed from the corner where it had sat for more than nine decades and put it into storage for about 14 years.

"We had a big, 90-gallon, saltwater aquarium, trying to fill this spot with sea fish," said Cavanaugh.

"It was nice, but it wasn't the lamp."

When Boyce fell ill, the lamp was taken out of storage by his family and sold at auction to a businessman in Montreal.

Cavanaugh tracked the lamp down two years ago and reinstalled it into its rightful place in the foyer.