Historic stained glass windows will get a new home this year in the Chapel of De La Salle and his Brothers. The existing windows are in the process of being removed and the new windows are projected to be installed in 2016.
The college is receiving these stained glass windows from St. Joseph’s Novitiate currently located in Barrytown, N.Y. The windows are no longer needed at this site and Manhattan College was chosen to preserve the window panels.
In rich detail, the stained glass tells the story of the life and work of St. John Baptist de La Salle.
“Let’s put it this way, this company has a resume you wouldn’t believe… The level of detail and artistry is incredible,” Andrew Ryan, vice president of facilities, said of the windows.
The windows have traveled a long way before ending up in the Bronx. They were originally designed and crafted by father and son artisans who lived in Bayeux, Lower Normandy in the early 1900s.
As The Quadrangle previously reported, the windows were created specifically for St. Joseph Novitiate which was originally located in Pocantico Hills, N.Y. The novitiate (and the windows) later relocated to Barrytown and have been there ever since.
Over the next few weeks, the current windows will be taken out and replaced with thermal windows for the winter.
“The process has been one window out and one window in each day,” Ryan said. This process is expected to take about six to eight weeks.
The stained glass windows will begin to be mounted in 2016. The installation of the final windows is expected to take less than a month to install.
Father George Hill, the Manhattan College chaplain, conducts mass every week in the chapel and is looking forward to the installation of the new stained glass windows.
“I think the new windows will be a help in a sense of making it feel more quiet and reflective…More of a sacred space,” Hill said. “Once students come in and just want to sit down and say a prayer I think it will help especially during the day.”
“As a weekly churchgoer, seeing the new stained glass windows will help add to the aesthetic and I can’t wait to see them,” Billy Casey, a senior chemical engineering major, said.