A DAZZLING ANNOUNCEMENT! Window #43!
When the Cross House was built 126-years ago it had 43 stained-glass windows. This is incredible. Amazing. I do not think I have ever been in a Victorian-era house with so many stained-glass windows.
Even more amazing is that that over this 126-year period, with so many many many changes to the house, including being transformed into a motel, none of the stained-glass windows went missing.
Save one.
Just one.
A block to the east of the Cross House is another house by the same architect, Charles Squires, at 526 Exchange. The house had been foreclosed upon seven times in its history and during one such event the owner ran off with all the stained-glass windows (and all the interior trim).
In this close-up you can see a stained window in the parlor (right) and dining room (left). Long gone. It is evident from being inside the house that numerous other stained-glass windows were also removed. (I have invited the current owners, who love the house, to photograph and trace my stained-windows should they decide to recreate any of their lost windows.)
What happened at 526 Exchange is common. And this dreadful fate almost befell the Cross House not long ago, as I discovered a few years ago in a series of horrifying letters.
When I purchased the Cross House in 2014 there was no indication that any stained-glass windows were missing. But, one day, I realized that one had vanished.
Oh, the horror.
This is the second-floor Sewing Room. It had four stained-glass windows originally. There were two in the middle (facing south). Over to the right…
….facing west, is this. I realized though that it once had a twin…
…across the room to the left. That door was originally a double sash window overlooking the sun porch, and with a stained-glass transom window above. But, at some point the porch was walled in and converted into a closet, and the window was transformed into the door opening shown here. And thus…drum roll-please…window #43 went missing. But today…(scroll way down)…
…window #43 is baaaaaaaaack!
To the right is the original west window. To the left is its newly made east window!!!!!!!! I think Hoefer did a great job in matching all the glass. Like, wow!
Of course, I cannot be sure what the lost window looked like but it seems reasonable that it was a match to the west window, as a paired theme is consistant throughout the house.
It is also of note that the architect of the house, Charles Squires, installed the same stained-glass design in the master bedroom of his house a block away, with two side-by-side windows!
Well, you can imagine my GREAT excitement. Soon, I will have window #43 installed in its original location. Later, I will recreate the lost clear-glass window.
Not only am I stupendously excited, but I also feel a huge burst of…pride? Is that the feeling? I mean, it is one thing to think: I would like to do X, and quite another thing to actually do X. So many times in my life I have had high aspirations about many things but one thing or another often gets in the way and aspirations remain just that rather than becoming realizations.
In short, I am bursting with…umm…pride. I did it! I followed through! I persevered!
And with this effort yet another small piece of the Cross House has returned. And, boy-oh-boy, my heart is just singing! While my eyes are tear-filled as I write these words.
WINDOW #43 IS BACK!!!!!!!!
Often, I have written about the value of small moves. With so much bad in the world, I am, yet again, suffused with happiness that in a very small way, in small town Emporia, Kansas, something is better.
And, with that, I am now crying!
WINDOW #43 IS BACK!!!!!!!!
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Wohoot! That is fantastic and it is beautiful!
For some reason most of the images aren’t visible from the webpage on my machine. Only the 1st one is visible.
Ok, I take it back, sort of. When I open it from the website, the images are still missing, but if I look at it in the email, the images are there…
You are not wrong, Ross. Small moves. #43 lifts me up!
Hoefer did a fantastic job. I couldn’t tell the old from the new if you didn’t point it out. And what is this about high aspirations and they stay just that, aspirations? But you persevered, the Cross House is one big perseverance. You should be proud.
Hi again… wanted to send my encouragement here as well, and repeat what i said about the octagon room walls for the windows. …… Ahhh, small victories! Keeps us going, AND make us feel like something great is happening! .👍
But one slight thing I noticed is….that the little round “dots” on the ends of the windows— one pair is blue and the other pair is red? Am i seeing that correctly? Interesting!
I didn’t even notice that!
The dots are actually jewels. They are no longer made. I’m gonna guess that Hoefer didn’t have a pair of antique blue jewels for the new window.
I’m charmed by the oddity!
I was going to ask about this, too. Now you’ll always know which one is the new window.
I have to ask why did you change the end dots from Blue to purple in the new one ?
See my comment above!
I think I can comfortably say that we are proud of you!
Such an amazing treasure.
Ross,
I was gonna say faceted, cuz i know they are, but i like jewels better! And yea, i like that little “charming ” oddity! Kind of like playing, Where’s Waldo?? Lol!!
And, i see it now, 2 different designs for the 4 windows-2 with flowers, and 2 with the clear diamond shaped centers. Neat!
How lovely. You have done so much for Cross house and Emporio. You have every right to be proud and teary. They really are incredible 😍
Impressive production by Hoefer’s Custom Stained Glass! The result is so close to the original.
Huzzah!
FANTASTIC, Ross. 2 splendid windows now restored. Great job.
I was so excited for the house that I sang lol. How beautiful and how exciting that it once again has all 43 windows. That’s a ton of beautiful stained glass!
If that door was a window, how was the porch accessed? Or am I reading wrong?
You’re not reading wrong. The porch was a sleeping porch. It was common in the age to have these to provide a cooling area to sleep during the hot summer months. None of them would have a door just a window, because during the winter months, a door couldn’t be sealed as effectively as a window. Notice that the sashes in the windows are very low to the floor, so stepping through the window wouldn’t be hard to do in simple night dress. There would be no bed or furniture, just a pallet made up to keep yourself off the wood surface. Since the porch was “open to the elements” and there is a drain to the ground, there would have been no furniture, just a bit of bedding during appropriate seasons.
We don’t think of such things, with our air conditioning and such, but it was important for comfort during the era. Notice that the round openings in the porch are very low to the ground also. Dangerous for standing humans, but safe for a prone body.
Just last week I took my 95 year old father to visit the house that he grew up in in DC. He had not been there since 1944. It is now a church. There is a second story porch on the back side of the house where, he explained, he and his sisters slept on during the hot summer months. It is exactly as you describe.
Thanks. I thought they would have had doors, but it does make sense that a window can be sealed better in the winter. Funny thing is, I grew up in a house that had a sleeping porch. I could have sworn that when we moved in, it had a non-original door. My dad said it was always a window. But when they restored the house, they definitely put in a window. I don’t know if I hallucinated the door, or if it was really there.
Such a great feeling to set a goal and then see it accomplished—but, of course, it’s one goal of many you’ve accomplished! Congrats, Ross, on returning Window #43 back home again!
The world is just a little bit better today than it was yesterday. Ross makes it better!
Another outstanding achievement. I was a little confused about things in this post because you didn’t show a wide angle view with all four windows. I searched this site for sewing room and came up with a cornucopia of posts. My favorite was this one, which shows the sewing room section of the house when the Rodak’s bought the house and opened the porch up for the first time since the 1920’s when it had been converted to a motel.
As I watch your progress, it almost impossible for me to visualize how bad it was when you bought it, but I have seen the image of it from 2014 so many times, I can. It is the pics from when the Rodak’s bought it that I have somehow blanked from my mind. Now I can see why Bob asked you if you were crazy when you decided to buy it from him.
This blog entry reinforces how much worse shape it was in when the Rodak’s bought it. Their courage in taking on this project originally was amazing only to be matched by yours in picking up the baton. How lucky Emporia is to have had two such conscientious care-taking owners in a row. You have made this house an icon in the annals of old house restoration by homeowners by recording so much of the process. How much more likely would it have been that Bob and Debbie’s work would have been lost if you hadn’t picked up that baton?
And now the last thing jewel-like window in the house has been recreated!
Sorry, but I am still not entirely clear on how or if you plan to install this new jewel in the original location in what is now a doorway.
The window frame has been extended down to make it into a doorway, and I had forgotten that Bob installed glass in the round openings and thought that he had returned the porch to its original open status. Is the glass still there, or did you take it out? If you took it out, I am unclear as to if there is an exterior door in that place now or if it is an open doorway as I had thought? All that time that you have been painting the south wall I have thought those openings had no glass in them. And I thought that I had been paying attention.
My question also: How will you access the porch if you put the window back? Is there room to put the door and the stained glass instead of a window?
I think Ross should build something fabulously tricky that looks like a window but is actually a door. Because I think Ross is just that kind of wizard!
Hello everybody!
There seems to be some confusion!
Yes, what is now a door to the porch was originally a window, and with a low sill like the other windows.
To get to the porch, one would have have pulled up the lower sash, crouched down, and stepped out to the porch. I know this seems ridiculous but it was apparently not uncommon for the era, and I did a previous post about this several years ago.
I plan to recreate the lost sill, and to recreate the lost double window sash. However, rather than the sashes moving up/down, they will (drum roll, please) open like a door. The sashes will be made of steel by Hope, and will be a single unit, hinged to the left. They will look just like the adjacent window sashes but, again, operate as a door.
Quite brilliant, I think!
You are brilliant Ross! That will be an amazing room!
Not sure if it’s true, but I’ve heard that one component of property tax back then was a charge for how many doors were in the house. There was no tax for the number of windows though, so where practical windows were used for doors.
Aaaaaw…. Ross, this is great!! Gosh, they did a Wonderful job matching that window!!! Good for you!!!
Looks so good
Welcome home Window #43 and Congrats to you Ross for making it happen. They did an excellent job replicating its mate, by the way. Good luck with the room.
Ross, as I have said many times before, the stained glass windows are one of my favorite features of the Cross House. I am ecstatic that you have been able to restore them all. Hoefer’s has done such a professional job for you and the Cross House. I too am near tears over this latest accomplishment. Once you have the “door” made and the windows installed, I plan to visit again to see all of your progress. A very MERRY CHRISTMAS to you and the Cross House. You both deserve it!!!!!