A little piece of Northampton’s history is better off now that a valuable Tiffany stained-glass window overlooking the sanctuary at the First Churches is on its way to much-needed repairs.
After flirting with the idea of selling the colorful and valuable 20-foot-high window to help pay off a mortgage, First Churches will instead use a Community Preservation Act grant from the city to fix it up and keep it in place for years to come. The work has been part of the church since the late 1800s. This is a wise allocation of CPA money and will ensure that this cultural treasure remains a part of an iconic church that continues to serve as a meetinghouse for no fewer than 27 local organizations. The church estimates that some 1,200 people use its landmark building downtown on a weekly basis.
The church intends to use a $213,000 CPA grant – which the City Council approved Thursday night – to restore both the Tiffany window facing Center Street and another dubbed the rose window facing Main Street. The Tiffany window, handmade by Charles Lewis Tiffany of Tiffany & Co., depicts a river sweeping from a background of rolling hills into a foreground of lily pads. Light floods the window with a palette of deep greens, blues, magentas and indigos.
It’s a blessing that the window won’t be shipped off to far-off places. It belongs right where it is, in the venerable 355-year-old historic church that serves as so much more to the city than a house of worship.