One Chicago church is beginning the process of restoring a special Tiffany glass window that’s been with the congregation for a century. Vi Nguyen has the story.
One Chicago church is beginning the process of restoring a special Tiffany glass window that’s been with the congregation for a century.
Tuesday morning was a busy one for conservators as they worked to remove a massive window in the sanctuary of Second Presbyterian Church in the South Loop.
“Most people when they walk in are pretty surprised to see something like this that they didn’t know existed,” said Linda Miller, President of Friends of Historic Second Church.
The group is now restoring the fourth Tiffany window at the church, and has raised around $700,000 for the project.
“These windows have been up for 100 years and you can imagine a big 16-foot window has a lot of gravity pulling on it so there’s been bowing and some cracked glass,” she explained.
Miller said Marshall Field donated the jeweled window now worth $1.2 million to honor the first minister of First Presbyterian Church.
“At one point First Presbyterian Church was in this neighborhood, but then they moved down to the Woodlawn neighborhood and didn’t take their windows with them and three of their windows came to this church,” she said.
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A company based out of New York has been tasked with the restoration project that started Monday.
“This is the first window that we’re doing on the north side of the building,” said Thomas Venturella, Owner of Venturella Studio. “We’ve done three on the south side.”
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His team hopes to have every piece removed and placed into crates by Thursday.
“Our idea is to maintain or retain as much original material as possible,” he said. “If there’s glass that’s missing I have a backup supply of original Tiffany glass that hopefully it will match our needs for this window and we can continue on.”
As they begin the process to bring the window back to life, those working in the sanctuary are eager for its return to the national historic landmark.
“It’s a treasure trove, it’s a museum all by itself,” he said. “It’s really really an important part of Chicago history.”
The restoration is estimated to take 14 months to complete. The group is hoping to restore the other Tiffany windows sometime down the road.
