DOWNTOWN CHURCH: To restore century-old stained glass windows

COLUMBIA, 4/16/11  (Beat Byte) --  One look from the street at the ornate stained glass windows that adorn both sides of Calvary Episcopal Church in downtown Columbia is enough to tell what a treasure they are. 

 

Now, after "two years of painstaking and extremely thorough research," church vestry members have announced an effort to restore the windows, some of which date back to the late 1800's.   Calvary Church selected Classic Glass of Fargo, ND to handle the restoration "after very careful consideration."   

 

Starting this month, workers will remove the windows and send them to North Dakota for "very precise and complicated renovation work." 

"We need to protect the beauty of our windows," church vestry members said, describing the windows as tired, broken, and badly in need of repair.  

 

Though vestry members say the church will be "a bit darker than usual, it will be worth it.  When the restoration is finished and the windows are back, they will be more beautiful and brighter than ever."