The Church of Christ has been invited to move forward with a full application for a grant from the State Historic Preservation Office (SHPO). If selected as the grant recipient, a full $200,000 one-to-one matching grant will be awarded to the church to complete the preservation work on the meetinghouse altar window.
The selection process is structured in multiple stages for SHPO greants, requiring an initial consultation or pre-application before a full application can be submitted. SHPO reviews the initial concepts and notifies applicants if they are officially invited to complete a full application. The full application includes detailed proposals that are reviewed by staff and Preservation Connecticut before being submitted to the Historic Preservation Council for a final funding vote.
The task of restoring the church’s stained-glass windows began in 2016 and has already seen conservation of all five Tiffany windows at the east end of Battell Chapel as well as the Maitland Armstrong window on the chapel’s west face and three of the side cathedral windows in the chapel.
Fundraising for the windows was paused in 2019, when addressing the precarious condition of the church’s 1813 steeple took priority. With the steeple now repaired and restored to its proper place over the sanctuary, attention is focused on the altar windows in the meetinghouse sanctuary. The soaring windows are made of German Bavarian glass and came from the studio of Franz Mayer & Co. of Munich, Germany, the same studio as the windows of Norfolk’s Immaculate Conception Church.
A goal of $300,000 was set for repair of these windows and the two cathedral windows in Battell Chapel. The church is requesting contributions toward the restoration work and online donations can be made here. [https://secure.myvanco.com/L-ZK04/campaign/C-14H6T?access=tile_direct] Questions about the windows or the fundraising effort can be directed to Marie Civco at Marie.Civco@gmail.com.