CHICAGO (WBBM NEWSRADIO) — Over 120 years since it was first installed, a Tiffany stained glass window at Second Presbyterian Church in Chicago’s South Loop is getting cleaned up.
“This is a treasure that needs Chicago’s attention,” said Linda Miller, president of Friends of Historic Second Church.
Miller’s group plans to take out the entire window, piece by piece, in order to clean and restore the glass to its original glory.
“After 120 years, windows need a little help,” Miller said. “They’re dirty, they’re starting to sag, and so what we’re doing today is taking out one of those Tiffany windows for a restoration.”
The actual restoration work will take place in New York. On Tuesday, workers carefully took down all 18 sections of the stained glass, which depicts two angels at the base of an actual Colorado mountain, and prepared it for the journey. Overall, restoration will take about one year.
David Neff, senior minister at the church, said Second Presbyterian has recently undertaken several restoration projects.
“We’re working on our third Tiffany window, and [we’re] so excited,” Neff said. “We’ve also had the newly restored Tree of Life mural — this was from 1903 — that was just restored a month ago. All kinds of artistic treasures in this church.”
The church itself, located at 1936 S. Michigan Ave., has been a National Historic Landmark since 2013, and it’s currently the only Chicago church to hold such a designation.
It was built during the Arts and Crafts movement, and Miller said the windows, murals and light fixtures at Second Presbyterian were all created by hand. The artisans who worked on the church, she added, aimed to create something both beautiful and useful.
“Every sanctuary is beautiful, but there’s a special reverence, beauty and decor that comes here through the Arts and Crafts movement,” Neff said. “This was the original vision of some of the major, wealthy families of Chicago that wanted to create an enduring place of art and architecture.”
The restoration of Second Presbyterian’s Tiffany windows is part of seeing that vision through.
“It’s a stunning, beautiful church, and as we get it cleaned up and restored, it’s even more breathtaking,” said Miller.
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