The overlooked artistry and legacy of the region’s stained glass has become an occasional story topic.
The topic is of interest for several reasons. For many, seeing stained glass at a community church was one of their earliest encounters with art and is worth revisiting — especially with the extra dimension of finding out who actually created the art for the windows and the stories associated with it.
The background of the glass also becomes important when churches change hands and, since many churches did not allow companies to sign their works with actual signatures or logos, many churches have no idea of the history of their own glass and their potential cultural and monetary value.
While there had been steady accumulation of stained glass information through visiting churches and communicating with companies in the past, the pandemic’s restrictions on gatherings shut the doors to visiting churches and stopped communication.
As indicated in the related story on page 9, communication with artists and companies is slowly resuming and adding to the history.
Additionally, as the following show, there are other resources that spotlight regional glass history and the people behind it that can be merged to help create a record of our region’s rich and colorful heritage.
Trinity Church, Princeton
The book “Trinity Church,” written in 1983 to commemorate the Princeton-based church’s 150th anniversary, reveals the following about its stained glass:
The Lady Chapel windows over the altar are the oldest. They were originally in the chancel and were designed by Wailes and Son, of Newcastle-on-Tyne, in 1870.
The original west window executed by Willet of Philadelphia had been installed in 1879. The large transept windows were one by Kemp of London in 1898 and 1899. The south transept one has four lancets. The small quatre-foil windows high in the walls of the crossings are features found particularly in English Gothic tower construction of the late 12th century.
The Baptistry has a window of English design done by Heaton, Butler, and Hayne, in 1912. The windows on each side of the nave are a planned series. They tell the story of Christ’s life starting with the window nearest the crossing on the Gospel side of the nave towards the west door and returning up the Epistle side of the nave. The chancel windows are of fine Connick glass, installed in 1915 when the architectural changes occurred.
After World War II, new glass was put in an east transept window in memory of parishioner Colonel Arthur Poillon and his son, Curtis, who was killed in the war. The prayers of St. Francis inspired the design.
Wilson of Edinburgh made the narthex windows of three-dimensional design. (One is in the memory of a beloved parishioner of pre-narthex days who would linger on the spot after church to hobnob with her friends. Indeed it would be interesting to describe each person whom Trinity windows memorialize; Miss Durner the teacher, Miss Kuebler, who sewed so diligently, Mrs. Elgin, and others of Altar Guild loyalty.)
Meanwhile the Willet Co. had in June, 1960, completed a window on the north side of the nave depicting Christ’s healing ministry. The same company later completed a window near the organ, after the organ was moved, on the subject of Christ’s miracles. Burnham of Boston designed two nave windows and a transept one.
The fire of 1963 damaged several windows that could be repaired. But the large one high up at the foot of the nave had to be replaced. It is called the Te Deum window. It represents the traditional faithful at the top and the modern faithful at the bottom, awaiting the last Judgment. This and the Willet windows in the Chapel of Christian Unity, half-way up the aisle, are of modern designs.
The most modern windows, however, are those in the St. Michael Chapel, where the old organ pipes used to be. These were executed by Brother Eric of the Taize community in France. Their brilliant colors are meant to symbolize the fact that Christian lives should be like windows through which the radiant life of the Holy Spirit shines.
Princeton University Chapel
In 2020 Princeton Alumni Weekly featured a story that reported on one of Princeton Chapel’s most prominent windows, “The Second Coming of Christ” by artist Nicola D’Ascenzo.
It’s the glass over the main entrance and includes two images of Christ’s earthly visitations. The first is a nativity, the other Christ arriving on judgement day, surrounded by zodiac images to represent eternity and the culmination of time.
According to PAW writer Anna Mazarakis, “D’Ascenzo was one of many Italian craftsmen who helped build the University, including stonemasons and landscapers. He was born in Italy and came to the United States in 1882 when he was 11 years old. D’Ascenzo became a stonecutter and woodworker’s apprentice and took formal painting lessons in the evenings before beginning a career as a decorator, later becoming interested in stained glass. He completed his first stained-glass commission in 1904, and by the time he died 50 years later, his studio was known for producing some of the finest stained-glass works in the country. He designed more than 7,800 windows for places including the National Cathedral and the Folger Shakespeare Library.”
D’Ascenzo had a studio in Philadelphia and approached creating glass with a handcrafted style used in the 12th century.
Mazarakis reports that in 1930 the artist told the Princetonian Daily that “many small bits of glass have been placed together to give brilliant contrasts of color. After the glass has been blown and the color fused into it, it is rolled out into large sheets about two feet by three. Then it is cut according to a pattern, all the work being done by hand.”
He added that “stained-glass work today is still a craft and in many respects is as primitive as it was 700 years ago.”
“The stained-glass window is more than 700 square feet and was assembled at D’Ascenzo’s studio before the artist transported large sections to Princeton for its installation on the entrance on the west side of the Chapel, facing East Pyne,” Mazarakis notes.
She adds that “amid the religious iconography, D’Ascenzo gave a nod to the Chapel’s construction by including images of the architect, the organist, and the glassmaker himself.”
Sacred Heart Church, Trenton
The oldest Catholic Parish in New Jersey, the church is also one of the few in the region that shares its stained glass history online and notes the following:
In 1908, 24 stained glass windows were added, fabricated by John Morgan and Sons, Brooklyn, the firm responsible for the church’s earlier windows. Inspired by Renaissance design, each window has a four-foot medallion at its center. On the river side, beginning at St. Joseph’s altar, the windows are dedicated to: St. Francis of Assisi, St. Dominick, St. Elizabeth, St. Clara, St. Anthony of Padua, St. Bernard, St. Rose of Lima, St. Cecelia, St. Anne, St. Joachim, St. Agatha and St. Catherine. On the street side, beginning at the Blessed Virgin’s altar, the windows are dedicated to: St. Theresa, St. Mary Magdalen, St. Lawrence, St. Stephen, St. Lucy, St. Agnes, St. Ignatius de Loyola, St. Aloysius, St. Philomena, St. Veronica, St. Alphonse of Liguori, and St. Vincent de Paul.
As noted earlier, past articles have touched on the history of stained glass in the region and identified the artists and the companies that created it (see U.S. 1 story “Adventures in Light and Color,” March 27, 2018), but there is more to learn and readers are invited to participate by sharing the information to help illuminate us all on an art that depends on illumination. Send to dan@princetoninfo.com.
