Community Foundation Helps With Costs

By Shelley Harms

Experts carefully remove the cracked Sunrise window by Louis Tiffany.

The first phase of Battell Chapel’s stained glass windows project took a surprising turn in early October.

Original plans called for the large center altar window, by Maitland Armstrong, to be restored first. David Maitland Armstrong was one of the foremost stained glass artists of the gilded age. After working as a colleague of Louis Comfort Tiffany, he formed a competing firm in 1887. Armstrong supplied all the original stained glass windows in Battell Chapel in 1888. He is also responsible for windows in Norfolk Library’s reading room and great hall.

The Chapel’s Armstrong windows are in urgent need—they are cracked, some of the glass is bowed, and the lead holding the pieces together is deteriorating. The plan was to restore these windows, then to turn to the five Tiffany windows. Louis Comfort Tiffany created these beautiful landscape windows especially for the Chapel’s Tiffany Room in 1928. They have become a tourist attraction for Norfolk visitors. The Tiffany windows are in better shape than the Armstrong windows, but need cleaning and minor repairs, and also need vented protective glass to allow them to “breathe” and prevent overheating.

The window will travel to Shelton, Conn. for repairs.

But now, just a few months after the start of fundraising toward a goal of $300,000 for the restoration project, a crack in the Sunrise window, the gorgeous central panel of the five windows by Tiffany, has spread alarmingly. So, the Sunrise window has jumped to the head of the line, and is headed to The Glass Source studios in Shelton, Conn. for repair. The one cracked plate will be removed, resealed and reinstalled. Also, the weathered protective covering will be replaced with clear laminated safety glass, properly vented, when the Sunrise window comes home. The first altar window will soon make its way to Shelton also, to undergo its extensive restoration process.

Fortuitously, the Community Foundation of Northwest Connecticut has awarded the Church of Christ a grant of $5,000 toward the repair of the Tiffany windows, which will cover a portion of the estimated costs. This money will be spent on the Sunrise window and related work. If all goes well, Tiffany’s Sunrise window will return to Norfolk by November, restored to its former glory and newly visible from outside.

To contribute to the Battell Chapel Windows Project, send your tax deductible check made out to Church of Christ, with “windows fund” in the memo, to Church of Christ, 12 Village Green, Norfolk 06058, or visit http://norfolkctucc.org/windowfund.html.

Photos by Bruce Frisch and Nels White.