First Congregational Restoring Stained-Glass Windows to Original Historic Design

In the 1950’s, when the First Congregational Church of Western Springs started seeing weathering damage to the six large stained-glass windows along the church’s sanctuary nave, they replaced the stars-and-chevrons design with six new windows depicting Bible stories.

At the time, the Prairie School of architecture that sprung up in the early twentieth century around Chicago, epitomized by Frank Lloyd Wright, was of little renown and less popular interest. But since the 1980’s, the movement has gained significant attention from the public and preservationists.

First Congo’s sanctuary is an example of the style; designed by George G. Elmslie and built in 1929, it was added to the National Register of Historic Places in 2006. The church’s community has since increasing embraced efforts to restore the building to Elmslie’s original design.

“The congregation started getting educated on what the Prairie movement was, who this guy [Elmslie] was, ‘wow, we really like this, what still hasn’t been restored?’” said project manager Dan Ruzic, a church member who has been working on various First Congregational updates for a few years now. “Well, the very dramatic thing was the windows.”

The original windows—and the new ones being put in—show no Bible stories, but instead reflect the Prairie School’s organic-feel aesthetic with a series of ascending multi-colored chevrons and star patterns, broken up with occasional horizontals.

Restoration began in May with the construction of a large protective box to shield the still-in-use nave from the window work. The three east windows were completed first; the box currently guards the three on the sanctuary’s west side.

It is empathetically not a slapdash job. How not? The church has brought in Navy Pier stained-glass museum curator Rolf Achilles as a consultant, and his perfectionism is demanding.

“We can stand here for hours now and say, ‘oh, here’s a little bit of a change we want to do,’ and he’s going to come back and modify it,” Ruzic said. “He’s gotten into it the same as we have.”

One particular difficulty is replicating the unique swirl of paint that emblazons the occasional chevron. In the eight-step process to make a pane of stained glass.

But overall, the restored windows are essentially indistinguishable from the set of originals closer to the altar that never needed to be replaced, which are used as templates.

Ruzic expects the project to be fully complete by Christmas.

“The congregation is very thrilled now that they’ve seen the first set [of windows,]” he said.

Read more about the restoration here.