In Williamsville, Historic Stained Glass Windows Shine Again

Solstice Stained Glass was featured in The Buffalo News after a recent project in which we had 5 short weeks to restore a dozen tall windows in a former church. You can read an excerpt from the article below or read the entire article on the newspaper’s website.

The Village of Williamsville had a short window to restore a dozen tall windows.

The historic stained glass windows in the village-owned Meeting House, a former church on Main Street, were removed and transported to Chicago for restoration over a five-week period that ended last month, hours before a wedding was to be held there.

“I’m shocked about the five-week turnaround because we’ve talked about this project for years,” said Village Trustee Deb Rogers. “We thought, ‘This is the time. We need to strike while the iron is hot.’ ”

Emily Carlson, owner of Solstice Stained Glass of Chicago, had a five-week window of availability that coincided with a period when no major events were booked at the Meeting House. Carlson happened to hear about the proposed restoration in Williamsville earlier this year while working on a separate project for Temple Beth Tzedek in Amherst.

The arched windows, each of which have four of five separate panels, were deteriorating and sagging at the bottom, in some cases under their own weight. To remove the windows, Carlson’s approach was to use a technique called “unzipping,” which involves pulling away the lead caming to remove each piece of glass individually.

Read the full article about Solstice Stained Glass and the Williamsville Meeting House.

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