Window will be reinstalled this fall

By Ashley M. Casey

Staff Writer

After a successful capital funding campaign last fall, the Baldwinsville First United Methodist Church has sent its historic “Rose Window” to be restored in Massachusetts. The window should be back in place by late October, according to the Rev. Lawrence Lundgren.

“It’s an indication of the strength of the congregation and its dedication to the community,” Lundgren said of the $640,000 the congregation has pledged for the Rose Window and other restoration projects.

Over the last two weeks, a crew from Stained Glass Resources of Hampden, Mass., erected a three-story scaffold to dismantle the enormous window for transport. Stained Glass Resources will construct a new frame and repair moisture damage to the paint and glass. The entire project will cost about $150,000 and should protect the Rose Window for another 80 to 90 years.

Lundgren said the storm glass installed about 40 years ago has led to the deterioration of the window. The window also had begun to sag as steel crossbars, installed in the early 1900s to support the window, rotted around it.

“All five consultants we asked for bids agreed that this storm glass, because it was unvented, allowed heat and moisture to develop between the ‘storm window’ and the stained glass and led to peeling paint, rotting frames and pressure that bowed the stained glass in places,” read a release from the church.

“It was at that point that if we didn’t do something, in the next few years it would have started to fall,” Lundgren said.

Church historian and longtime parishioner Bonnie Kisselstein said the Rose Window, which depicts Jesus cradling a lamb, dates back to the original dedication of the church. Floodlighting was installed in 1940.

“The window is lighted each night, 365 days a year, thanks to a fund established many years ago by a parishioner or parishioner’s family,” read a release from the church.

The maker of the window is unknown, but the church itself was designed by Syracuse architect Horatio Nelson White. The architect modeled the Baldwinsville FUMC after one of his previous projects, the Methodist Episcopal Church in Cortland. Construction on the FUMC began Aug. 24, 1869, and the church was dedicated Oct. 20, 1870.

Kisselstein said the church has undergone numerous renovations throughout its nearly 150-year history, including the lowering and eventual removal of the steeple.

“The church had gone over 50 years without a steeple,” Lundgren said. “It kind of looked like the top was cut off.”

Major renovations took place in 1915 and in the mid-1980s. The church replaced the steeple in 2011 and installed a new organ in 2013.

The restoration of the Rose Window is part of a series of improvement projects the FUMC will pursue over the next few years, including restoration of the church’s remaining stained glass windows, roof repairs and updates to the sound system. Lundgren estimated the cost of these projects will total more than $800,000.

“In the fall of 2015, we conducted a capital funds campaign, inviting people to pledge over a three-year period,” Lundgren said. “We didn’t expect to raise all of the $800,000, but we invite people to shoot high. We did exceed the goal of $600,000.”

Lundgren said stewardship of the building is important to maintain the church’s community outreach efforts, and Kisselstein said the window is an important symbol.

“I love our Rose Window especially because of its center. It is the Good Shepherd [Jesus holding a lamb],” Kisselstein said. “Whenever I’m worried or anxious about something, I picture Him holding us in his arms. With the world in such a state, I picture the globe there.”