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History of the
Stained Glass Windows
Mr. Ernest Jones was a charter member of the Methodist Temple who came with the Fourth Street German Methodist Church in 1950 and later transferred to Aldersgate Methodist Church.
A member of the committee to acquire the stained glass windows for the newly constructed church, Ernie remembers that the church commissioned the J. W. Winterich & Associates in Cleveland, Ohio, to design and construct the East and West windows. The committee selected Beatitudes for the taller windows on the east side and Parables for the windows facing west. They also selected episodes from the life of Christ for the vignettes, or lower windows, on the east side.
Mr. and Mrs. Jones spent several days in Cleveland at the Winterich Studio where their specific task was to help select the colors for the windows. Mr. Jones's notes show that Rudy Sandone, who worked at Winterich, did the original cartooning, or drawing of the designs, and made revisions as the committee suggested. The cutting patterns were made by Chester Dular and Joe Skala while Zsigmond Csicery traced and developed designs.
Sandone painted the glass, using various materials including metallic oxides. Mr. Jones remembers that just the right shades of yellow were especially hard to achieve because the colors were strongly affected by the temperatures, which ranged from 900 to 2000 degrees in the firing kiln used to set the paints.
Mr. Jones remembers that a Catholic church in Youngstown, Ohio, had commissioned the Winterich Studio to design and build windows for the Youngstown church at the same time. When members of that committee saw the themes and designs for the Methodist Temple windows, they dropped their original plans and asked for windows like the Evansville ones. As far as he knows, those same windows, with a few design changes, were installed in Youngstown.
The Methodist Temple windows were completed in Cleveland and installed in sections in the present positions in January of 1953. Mr. Jones says the original windows of plain textured architectural glass which were installed when the church first opened in 1950 were removed and given to a small Methodist church near Oakland City.
According to Mr. Jones, the Cross Window which faces Lincoln Avenue was installed when the church was under construction at a cost of $150. It was given by Mr. and Mrs. Frank Schaaf, the parents of Dorothy Schaaf Hay.
The Chancel Window over the altar was installed on November 1, 1951. It was made by Emil Frei Associates, Inc. in St. Louis and was donated to the church by Mr. and Mrs. Thomas Morton, Sr. The cost was $2,500.
(Based on an interview with Ernest Jones and information from Bob Shepherd.)
Collected by: Shirley Everett, August 12, 1994, Evansville, IN
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