100-year-old stained glass windows restored, back on display at Yawkey House Museum
WAUSAU, Wis. (WSAW) – For the previous 6 months at the Yawkey Property Museum, some thing has been missing.
“The windows are authentic to the property, they would have been installed as portion of the 1907 renovation that took position right here at Yawkey House,” Erick Konop, the Curator at the Yawkey Dwelling Museum mentioned of the 3 stained glass home windows.
The a few panes were replaced in December 2021 with basic, frosted glass so the first windows could be restored.
“For as long lasting as stained glass appears to be like, it actually has, for deficiency of a much better term, a shelf lifestyle,” Konop explained. “After about 75 several years, the lead that retains stained glass together decays to the position that you’re in hazard of dropping the structural integrity of the window.”
The home windows at the Yawkey residence were being effectively earlier that 75-calendar year mark.
“The windows ended up nicely above 100 several years outdated, and they were setting up to bow out, so that’s normally a fantastic sign that they’re prepared for a comprehensive restoration,” Kristy Meyer, Owner of Studio K Stained Glass stated.
Meyer and her staff at her Appleton-based business worked for the past 6 months to restore the windows to their previous glory.
“It’s a unique knowledge each and every time, even though we do restoration on home windows all the time, we do not know how they ended up done in the earlier, they didn’t have the same tools we have in the past, so it’s awesome to see how the unique artisans did the perform for us, and devoid of the electrical tools and things that we have these days,” she said of the course of action.
With their perform done, it was time to get the windows again the place they belong.
“All of it ideally will go in nice and smoothly for us,” Meyer reported.
Konop viewed as Meyer’s workforce worked to get the panes back in area. “It’s heading to sense like a big component of the home has occur back residence,” he reported.
The windows returned to Cyrus Yawkey’s study depict an oak forest.
“Cyrus Yawkey was a lumberman and fairly specific about the completed woods that went into his residence, and this room is completely oak themed, which we comprehend was Cyrus Yawkey’s favored wooden,” Konop mentioned, referring to the study.
With the window panes again in area, additional than 100 many years of record is again in which it belongs.
“A hundred many years back, anyone created these for the reason that they assumed it would be the suitable detail for that house, and you want to hold that residing, fundamentally,” Meyer explained.
The Yawkey Dwelling Museum is open for excursions Tuesday through Sunday.
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