After collecting dust for more than 10 years, light will again shine through historic stained-glass windows in International Falls.
The antique windows from a 99-year-old vacant church, originally the St. Paul English Lutheran Church, are one of several items salvaged as the site is prepared for demolition next week. The abandoned church at Sixth Street and Sixth Avenue was built in 1913.
“This would have been a huge expense for the parishioners at that time to put this together in the building,” said Marc Windsnes, one of the people helping to clean out the building and salvage the pieces. He explained the glass likely originated in Europe, and was taken across the ocean, then transported by rail to International Falls. “They’ve really left us a legacy.”
The church became vacant when the congregation, now called St. Paul Lutheran Church, relocated to a larger building on Ninth Street in the 1953. The building now owned by Jim Brouillard of the Falls is too costly to rehabilitate to make it inhabitable. What was once a gathering place is now a space deteriorating with mold and water damage.
To carry on the legacy, a few of the stained glass pieces will be readopted and incorporated into the church’s current site.
“It’s to preserve a bit of our heritage,” said George Aitchison, a member of St. Paul Lutheran Church, adding that some of the pieces have crowns and crosses hidden in the art. “It brings us back to the old symbols of our church.”
Before the building comes down, the congregation is invited to tour the old site.
“Most of them have never been in the building,” Windsnes said. “It’s a chance for them to reconnect where their church started.”
Some of the current church members, however, were confirmed in the old building and went to Sunday school there. They will have a chance to keep an old brick, also salvaged from the building, to remember the history.
The bricks were found in large wooden boxes in the attic. They once were a part of the church’s original chimney.
Similar bricks from the wall match the bricks that were used to build what is now home to Backus Community Center — Brouillard is donating those to Backus for future repair or retouching projects.
Antique glass washboards and other miscellaneous glass from the building has been donated to Northland Art Society for artists to use in their glass work.
“We thought these windows would be perfect for that,” Windsnes said.
Brouillard purchased the building in the 1960s and made it a home for his family. Later, it was rented to tenants until it became too old to be used. Since it was built back when the city sold half lots, the lot is now too small for a house to be built on it. The land will be donated to Zion Lutheran Church, which is located across the street.
Rev. Steve Olson, pastor at Zion Lutheran Church, said he’s not sure exactly what the church will make of the land when they receive it.
“We’ll have to wait and see,” he said.
The pieces of the building are being salvaged now as Brouillard prepares to move back home to Crookston. The site would cost to much to rehabilitate and keep, but Brouillard wanted to keep the historic pieces where they began.
“Even though the building is going to be gone, at least this little part of history will be used in the community,” Windsnes said. “We won’t be losing this pioneer past, so to speak.”
Aitchison said the church’s men’s group recently wondered what happened to the stained glass because “when you drive by, the windows are boarded up.” The current church was in the process of planning to remodel its west wall for more insulation, Aitchison said, when they received a call from Windsnes.
“They’ll fit right in,” Aitchison said. “It’s perfect timing.”
The mystery of exactly how the stained glass windows were built still lingers. The church bought four of them — three to be placed in a custom-made modern window, and one extra.
“Knowing that the glass is almost 100 years old, we were really concerned about it becoming damaged when we place it or if it just completely shatters,” Aitchison said. “No one really seems to know what happens to the stained glass throughout the years.”
But looking at the glass gives some hints about how they were crafted, Windsnes said.
“These are antique windows, and the quality is very unique,” he said. “They handcrafted the glass — it’s all hand laid work. And of course if they can withstand 99 Minnesota winters, that’s amazing.”
Some of the windows have small patches of damage accumulated over the years, but most of the glass is still solid. The eight remaining stained-glass pieces are available to the community for purchase. For more information, contact Windsnes at 283-8268.
Windsnes added that the true significance of the pieces to the community comes in looking beyond the material aspects.
“It’s important to the community because it’s a reminder of the beauty the pioneers tried creating in what was at that time, essentially a wilderness,” Windsnes said, adding that the glass was put in just three years after the city was founded. “How often do you have a community gathering place like a church — that was a central gathering place for immigrants — that’s managed to survive?”
