Removal of beautiful Tiffany windows begins months long restoration
POTTSVILLE, Pa. - It's an exciting day at United Presbyterian Church in Pottsville.
People passing by the church under bright blue skies hear the commotion of construction.
"The team is removing two Tiffany windows built in early part of the 20th century," said Diane Rousseau, Stained Glass Conservation Expert.
The windows are the creation of acclaimed Tiffany Designer Agnes Northrop, whose River of Life motifs were commonly used for memorials.
"They're very beautiful, It's a lot like looking at my home really, the Lehigh Valley and the Poconos," said Allentown Art Museum Registrar Maria Williams.
The first window was installed in 1913 to honor honors Civil War veteran and Pottsville Businessman Heber S. Thompson.
Six years later in 1919, a second signed window was donated in the name of Sara Ann Derr.
Her son Louis overseeing every detail of the window's design.
Its installation came at a time when Pottsville and the nation were just coming out of the Spanish Flu pandemic.
Local historians say the towns people were excited to get out and see the colorful addition to the church.
Tiffany Studios was founded by Louis Comfort Tiffany in Corona New York in 1885.
Before Tiffany, stained glass windows were made of mostly translucent glass that was painted.
Tiffany, who was already a well established designer, experimented in making objects out of broken jars that had imperfections in the glass.
Those imperfections inspired Tiffany, whose desire to create his own specialized glass would elevate glassmaking to an art form.
The result was the trademark Favrile glass, meaning handmade.
Northrop, like Tiffany was an artist, and liked to experiment with color and design.
Northrop would paint her designs in watercolor and then give them to a group of women known as the "Tiffany Girls" who would select the glass for each piece.
After more than a century of cherishing the windows, the Church decided to sell them to the Allentown Art Museum so they could be preserved for generations to come.
Rousseau is leading the effort.
She's been through this process many times, but even so, she says she always holds her breath during the delicate removal process.
Eric Walther, General Manager of Northeast Stained Glass is leading the removal team.
"The windows need to be handled in a certain way," said Walther. "There are motions that the stainless windows don't tolerate well and the potential for breakage is pretty high especially when taking windows out."
Especially when those windows have been in place for more than a century.
Walther's team has to remove frames, metal supports and putty holding the windows in place.
After the first section is removed, everyone exhales.
It takes roughly four hours to remove the entire window.
But the second window would prove to be a much bigger challenge because of the way it's made and the fact that it's heavier.
Because it has several layers of glass on some of its features, it's more fragile.
During the removal process, the crunch of glass is heard occasionally.
But luckily, the second window comes out with easily and without any major issues.
After the windows are removed, the sections are boxed up and loaded into a truck destined for Rousseau's workshop in North Adams Massachusetts.
"Basically to do whatever repairs are needed, hopefully very minor," said Rousseau.
The restoration is expected to take several months.
The windows will go on permanent display at the Allentown Art Museum in April 2025.
"They will be the first thing you see when you walk in," said Williams. "They're going to have a strong presence just given their size and the imagery with the landscapes."
While the space where the Tiffany Windows used to be is now bare, soon replicas of the images will be installed so their likeness will continue to shed light on the United Presbyterian congregation.
