How do you remove a stained glass window?

Very, very carefully.

I spent yesterday, in between doing the communion service at the assisted living place and visiting Naomi's family, watching expert stained glass window restorers remove our most rickety window on the northwest corner of the church. Once they have finished this window (come late August or early September), we will only have two more to go and then all windows will have been restored/rebuilt to last another 100 years when some other rector will have to deal with them (!). These windows date from the late 1870s; they are characteristic of their time period: people could choose window patterns from a catalogue not unlike a Sears Roebuck catalogue, and then personalise them as far as memorials.

So, here's a photo narrative.


Here the window is pre-removal. Shortly thereafter all one could hear was a chorus of banging as G and K started removing the outside molding. The women on the right are Mary and Martha.


I've always loved this dove high up in the top.


Sometime in the 60s or 70s, this heavy plastic was put on to protect the windows. Protect them, indeed, from b-b pellets and falling ice, but at the same time, the plastic panels created a space in which the windows absolutely baked which contributed to the degradation of the leading. Moreover, the previous restorer drilled all sorts of holes into the casing in order to attach metal frames onto which the plastic was screwed.


By 11.15, they had removed all the outside plastic and were chipping away at the molding and caulking.


When I got back from Naomi's at 1.15, they had already removed the dove and were just about to remove the large panel on the right. Having watched them at work three years ago when they removed the high altar window, I am familiar with their blue tape — it's not super sticky but obviously holds the window together (particularly on the edges where the leading may be the most fragile) so it doesn't fall apart as they take it out of its place.


With gentle wiggling, the window is freed.


Gently, gently, down it goes.


Then into the truck it goes where it will rest against plywood, and be strapped in horizontally and shored up with metal rods.


Then it's time to start the final chipping away at molding to free the second large panel.


Since part of the restoration involves their completely taking apart the window, they make a cardboard outline of the original space so that when they rebuild the window, they can be sure that it will fit back into its hole. The washing machine cardboard is only a temporary addition.



It's a bit hard to see because of the upload quality but G is gently wiggling the window to get it loose while K is tapping on whatever is keeping it stuck. Finally he gets it to move. When he realises that I am filming, he wiggles it some more just to show how flimsy and wobbly the window is.


I took this while they were carrying the window to the truck.

It took another hour to get the other four panels out. I left before they put up the plastic on the outside to cover the window but when I get back later, I will post a photo of what we'll see for the next month or so.