[PA-NJ Glassblowers] Willet Hauser Architectural Glass (Philadelphia) does $900, 000 stained glass repair/replacement project

Tony Patti gaffer at glassblower.info
Sun Dec 22 19:55:10 EST 2013


This article is on the front page of today's Philadelphia Inquirer, Sunday
December 22, 2013

 

http://www.philly.com/philly/news/20131222_Bringing_back_landmark_N_J__churc
h_brought_low_by_storm.html

 

Amy Novak a glass selecter with the Willet Hauser Glass Co. in North
Philadelphia, compares a piece of glass to others she had selected to be
used in stained glass windows that were destroyed during a fire at the
Church of the Redeemer in Longport. ( RON TARVER / Staff Photographer )
December 18, 2013

 



 



 


LONGPORT, N.J. - It was unfathomable that this spot where the island narrows
along a rock wall beside the bay had lost its beacon and landmark, the
Church of the Redeemer.

Consumed not by water but by fire during the terrifying derecho storm of
June 2012, flames shooting out of stained-glass windows, the 100-year-old
Spanish Mission-style church was a total loss, including those singular
windows combining the iconography of the life of Jesus and the seashore.

You might think the church, and particularly those windows, created in the
1930s at Willet Stained Glass Co. at 39th Street and Girard Avenue in
Philadelphia, would be irreplaceable.

But some losses, it turns out, can be undone. Despite lacking any original
architectural drawings, "we were determined to rebuild," said Tom Subranni,
a church member who chaired the effort.

And so it was that the church overlooking the edge of an island itself prone
to vanishing could, like the sand being pumped back onto the beaches, be
brought back.

Windows and all.

It turned out that Willet was still in business, though merged and operating
out of a warehouse at 811 E. Cayuga St. in Juniata Park as Willet Hauser
Architectural Glass.

The company still had records - drawings, watercolors, slides, scribbled
notes - dating back to the original windows.

An insurance policy with $1 million in art coverage - obtained by the church
in a group Episcopal Church policy - made rebirth possible.

Now, workers are finishing the new structure, a near exact replica whose
stucco-covered walls are now concrete, not wood.

They hope to reopen on Father's Day, the traditional start of the season for
this spiritual home for summer Episcopalians.

As for the windows, "it's been kind of a detective story all along," said
Jenkyn Powell, general manager of Willet Hauser. "Some things were very
difficult to see in pictures, or weren't really shown in drawings. We got as
many sources as we could."

When Willet research librarian Amy Di Gregorio dug deep into the old Dewey
decimal-like drawers lining an upstairs wall, she found a series of cards
indexing all of the windows.

"This was a rare situation," she said. "It was such an old job. We had a
system. We didn't have all of the designs."

Those cards pointed the way to other drawers and files from the Longport
project, which contained original cartoons, watercolors by George Gugert,
and slides and shop drawings by Henry Willet himself, son of founder William
Willet, who scribbled pencil measurements, notes, and drawings of the
windows.

The company used photographs taken by third-generation Crosby Willet on a
trip in the early 1980s with his wife, Gussie, to give a talk to the
congregation. After being put up inside the church overnight, Crosby Willet
took photos in the early morning rather than chitchat any more with church
members.

"Gussie was really blown away by the English streaky glass," recalled Elaine
Bell Susko, a current Willet artist. With photographs by church historian
Michael Cohen and images from GoogleEarth, the company has been able to
reproduce - almost exactly - the original windows.

All have seashore images - ship rope, wooden boats, sea horses, jellyfish,
shells, and round circles that Susko thought long about before concluding
they were bubbles.

Henry Willet noted in the original 1939 dedication program that the scene at
the front of the church has Jesus preaching from a boat; the congregation
itself serves as the flock on the riverbank.

He noted the use of seaweed instead of traditional leaf in the border, and
in the background, boats and seagulls, though some assume they are doves.

Susko creates the designs on the windows through a reverse painting process
that involves applying paint with iron oxide, then removing it like a
scratch board to let in light and reveal the colors.

She also consulted her handy Field Guide to the Atlantic Seashore for
details not visible even with the original sources.

New Jersey Bishop George Edward Councell never questioned the rebuilding
effort on such valuable land. The bill for the windows will be nearly
$900,000.

No wonder. The process involves many hands in a studio set up like an old
medieval artisan shop, an expert for each step.

There was Mike Leimberger, the patterner, who used computer programs to
extrapolate from the drawings and photos and produce full-scale patterns
detailing each piece of glass in the full design.

There was Amy Novak, the selector, who went to Germany and back to find the
right colored glass. The original glass used was manufactured in England in
a factory that shut down after World War II. Willet had purchased some of
its inventory.

But much of the new glass was manufactured in Washington state to look like
antique glass.

For one color, Novak ended up going all the way to Germany. This was the
cobalt blue that forms the backdrop - the baseline, Powell says - to some of
the scenes, a color so meaningful to the original parishioners, particularly
Mayor Edwin Lavino, who paid for them, that he sent back the large circular
rose window for a deeper blue.

Although faithful to the original, the hand of an artist and practicalities
mean they are new creations.

Will a young child note the addition of a sea horse that was a whim of
Susko? Will a loyal parishioner look up and tell that only eye level and
down is from antique glass salvaged from the English factories after World
War II?

"The English glass is unbelievable," Crosby Willet, 84, said by phone from
Vero Beach, Fla. "It's not the same, what they're doing now. It's beautiful,
and it's going to be very effective. It won't have the softness and detail
they created in the '30s and '40s. To me, it won't be the same."

The same could be said for the building itself. Instead of wood trim, it's
the synthetic Azek. The building has been raised for flooding, so there will
be additional steps once you enter through the red door. It has been pushed
back slightly from the edge of the property, so the tower no longer sits on
the original brick base.

The wood exterior is cast in concrete - made to outlast a fire during a
derecho, whether ignited by lightning or by an unsteady electric pole (a
theory never proven; the pole fell against the structure during the storm).
The roof is terra cotta tile, but lacks the original's variety of hues.

Getting architect Terry Wray on site immediately after the fire to take
measurements from what was left was key to extrapolating dimensions,
comparing with photos and window measurements, and creating new plans. (The
tower is a wee bit taller.)

But the building is so close to the original that some who come down for the
first time since before the fire are certain there has been no fire after
all, or that it was quite small.

The roof cross was salvaged from the fire.

Four new bells for the tower are to be cast in France with the name of a
donor yet to be determined. (See Tom Subranni on 11th Street; he's also
accepting donations.) There will be a new organ.

Standing outside the church the other day, Subranni and Wray noted the
differences but marveled at the restoration of a landmark that also served
as the town's lighthouse, the bell tower's light guiding boats into Seaview
Harbor, visible for miles.

Though cherished from the outside by thousands, as a 12-week seasonal chapel
it has just 50 families as members.

Subranni said he was grateful that the Episcopal Church kept up its support
(and the insurance policy), and he urged people to fill the church's
mahogany interior on opening day, to reassemble as Jesus' flock at water's
edge, to fulfill the vision of Henry Willet and Edwin Lavino, improbably
brought back by devoted caretakers.

"The way I see it, we had a wooden church that was 100 years old," Subranni
said. "Now we have a church that is going to last for centuries."

 

 

For more information about Willet Hauser Architectural Glass, please see
their website www.willethauser.com 


Tony Patti
  
www.glassblower.info
  
gaffer at glassblower.info

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www.glassblower.info

 

 

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