In April 1893 the Reverend John Von Herrlich arrived at St. John’s Episcopal Church. The cathedral-style church had been under construction since 1887 but remained unfinished. The shell of St. John’s had been boarded up for four years with only the exterior stone walls, a slate roof, and a boiler in place. Father Von Herrlich promised the parish he would help to get the church building finished.
Just two months later, twelve stained glass windows were lowered into their openings and meticulously wedged in place with wood frames built to encase each window. St. John’s first service in the building was a wedding held on July 23, 1893.
For more than 130 years the windows stood as sentries watching over generations of St. John’s parishioners. In the 1950s exterior windows were added to protect the stained glass from weather damage. However, after years without maintenance, it became apparent in 2022 that the windows were suffering both inside and out. The colors faded; their vibrancy long forgotten. The exterior was equally distressed, with wood rotting, pieces missing, and an entire pane completely gone. St. John’s made a connection with Hoefer Custom Stained Glass in Hutchinson, and work began to restore the windows to their original beauty.
In March of 2023, a crew of six from Hoefer descended on St. John’s. The windows were numbered. Then piece by piece the wood that framed each window was pried loose, identified, and bundled so each piece of wood could be returned. Then attention turned to the windows; two ten-foot sections and one three-and-a-half-foot half-moon piece above.
Over the years some individual panes of glass had been broken. Instead of removing the entire window, the small panes had been cut out and other panes of colored glass had been inserted. In most cases, the replacement panes didn’t match. Efforts would be made to replace those mismatched panes with glass that more accurately matched the original panes.
Once back at Hoefer’s shop, each window pane was numbered. Tracings were made, wood frames were removed, and each window was placed into elevated, shallow tubs of water. The glass, thick with grime built up over decades, was scrubbed clean. And then the process was repeated. To protect the workers, special safety vents operated overhead as the old lead was removed. As if completing a jigsaw puzzle, the clean panes of glass were placed atop each window’s tracing. They were now ready for new lead to be applied.
In late April Hoefer informed St. John’s that some of the windows were almost ready. With cameras in tow, eight parishioners made the trip to learn about the process and glimpse these treasures. As the doors opened and sunlight entered, the intensity of the colors bathed the room in glory. The windows looked as they might have in 1893.
Meanwhile, exterior work was being done to prepare for the windows’ return. The outside was scraped, sanded, filled, primed, and painted. Extra space was created to allow more space between the stained glass and the protective glass that had been ordered. Small vents were built in at the top of each window’s metal frame to allow condensation to dry.
The reinstallation was a well-choreographed dance, each worker moving in the right direction at just the right time. With crowbars and mallets in hand, they eased each window back into their cradles. A slight move here, a pry there, a few taps of the mallet, and the windows descended back into their original positions, of time shone fresh light on the Word of God as the congregation prayed, “Oh Lord God, the whole world is filled with the radiance of your glory: Accept our offering of these windows which we now dedicate to you for the adornment of this place and the inspiration of your people. Grant that as the light shines through it in many colors, so our lives may show forth the beauty of your manifold gifts of grace, through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.”
Submitted by St. John’s and edited by Chad Senuta
835 SW Polk St.