In January 2025, a short article about our Rose Window appeared in this column. Recently, I found a report written by Jane Anderson in November 1978 that explained how the window as we know it was created. Jane wrote, “The glass in the [original] rose window matched that in the side windows and in the center was a dove. About 50 years old, the window had taken a beating from the weather. There were broken places and pieces as big as my hand were missing. The dove had become dull and bits flaked off.” 

Jane went on to describe the first changes made to the window in 1963. First, she placed a colored overlay on the center to convert the dove to a flaming chalice. She then put contact plastic over the holes and painted the patches with oil paint. Jane and other members of the congregation made a variety of overlays for the center.  In her 1978 report, Jane mentions having 30 or so images to choose from. I found later documentation that we have over 50 inserts now.

Jane discussed the process of remaking the Rose Window at the time the new wing was added to the church in the mid-1960s. “Now at the time that we built the new wing on the church, we also gave the old church building a great renovation. There was a long list of improvements hoped for …  [but] the Building Committee had to reduce the budget several times. There was a priority list and items at the bottom of the list were cut off. A new Rose Window was always near the bottom of the list. The Building Committee would cut it off along with other items, but when the architect would bring back the list for further decisions, the Rose Window would still be tagged onto the end.” 

The architect, Bob Kennedy, had just returned from studying the churches of Europe and had ideas about our window. He worked with two artists from the window department of Creative Builders and proposed to use fractured glass set in a matrix of black epoxy. The estimated cost was $1,500.

Jane wrote, “Once again the Building Committee, faced with cost overruns, crossed off the Rose Window along with other projects, and once again the architect’s revised list included it at the bottom of the list. This time, Roy D. Murphy, owner of Creative Builders and a member of the church, offered to give us the window rather than see the project abandoned.” 

Robert Chase, a designer at Creative Builders, built and installed the window in the summer of 1965 using 1-inch thick glass from France. Members of the church participated in the design by recommending colors and suggesting that they should radiate from the center. 

On September 12, 1965, our minister, Rev. Jack Taylor, wrote that he was “tempted to drag people off the street and show them this exciting piece of art in order that they might enjoy what we are privileged to own.”