As noticed, most of the streetlights running east and west between Broad St. and Ascension Rutherford St. Thomas Hospital on Medical Center Boulevard gradually turned blue and purple some of last year before their replacement, earlier 2023.

“After the [Murfreesboro Electric Department/Middle Tennessee Electric] merger in mid- 2022, Middle Tennessee Electric was made aware that some of the lights along Medical Center began turning purple/blue,” said Amy Byers, Marketing and Public Relations Coordinator for Murfreesboro electric company, Middle Tennessee Eletric (MTE).

“Murfreesboro Electric Department [MED] originally purchased the lights in 2019 from their regular lighting supplier and installed them on Medical Center Parkway and Garrison Drive as a trial to determine if MED liked this specific style of light and to see if the lights would work well in the Medical Center Parkway area,” continued Byers.

“We learned that these lights had a manufacturing defect related to the phosphorus coating, making them change colors from the bright white color to the purple/blue hue.”  

“We reached out to the manufacturer of the lights in September 2022, who agreed to honor the warranty.  Due to worldwide supply chain issues, it took several months to receive the replacements.  During this time, most of the lights along Medical Center Parkway had turned purple/blue which led to much speculation and jokes/memes about why Medical Center Parkway was purple.”  

“MTE finally received the lights in December 2022 and began replacing them during the January – February 2023 timeframe.  The lights were purchased prior to the MED/MTE merger in 2020 and were fine until two years after the merger.  We received a mixed bag of reactions from individuals hating the “blue” lights to enthusiastic MTSU fans to people getting mad that the calming purple hue was gone once the replacements were installed.”