First Congregational Church of Redlands Gets Revamped

The First Congregational Church of Redlands is making sure light is streaming brightly through its windows. On Tuesday morning, Jan. 7, workers from hand-crafted stained glass professionals Judson Studios worked to remove antique stained glass windows from the church as part of phase two of an ongoing five-year renovation project. Church members said prep work began Monday, Jan. 6, before the next day's removal of the windows facing Cajon Street. Windows on the Olive Avenue side were taken down, repaired, reassembled and placed again in June. "The lead is losing its strength, making some of the glass crack and they were in danger of collapsing," said Bob Clark, a church member leading the window replacement project. As the original Tiffany windows are over a century old, they warranted dire repairs, he explained. "It was time to start repairing them, whether or not we wanted to," Clark said. The church has somewhere around 40 windows in total, each comprised of several individual parts that make up the whole. "The workers had to take thousands of pieces out (of the windows), clean each piece, then repair and reassemble them," Clark said. Wooden trim around the edges of the glass is also being repaired and restored. In all, the windows go through significant repairs through an approximate three week-long workshop, Clark said. Judson Studios also did the cleaning and repairs on the church's Olive Avenue-side windows; they were returned back to the church in September. Plexi glass now surrounds most of the windows to help protect them from the elements. "We highly value [the windows]," said the church's pastor, Lowell Linden. "We are the stewards of this building that was left to us 100 years ago, and it surprised us how bright those windows were once they were redone. We didn't realize how much soot was on them." Church renovations have totaled $500,000 and most of that money was donated by the congregation. The church has raised over $460,000. "We're a congregation of maybe 500 and I think it shows how dedicated we are. It really was an inspiration to me to see how much of that money was raised," said Clark. The windows are central decorations to the church, which has a long and colorful history in the community. "Those windows create a beautiful prism that just dances all over the place. I think sometimes the choir has trouble following (the maestro) because they get busy watching the colors come alive and dance all over," Clark chuckled. Over the next few weeks the windows will be repaired and undergo paint retouches before they are replaced inside the church. Congregation members hope to see the renovation project completed sometime this year; they estimate project completion anywhere from April to September. "It's been a lot of work and we've heard that if we do it right, [the windows] will last for another hundred years. That's really our goal: get something good done here so our next generation won't have to worry about it," said Clark.