News

Oct 16, 2024

Stained Glass Windows at St. Olaf Refurbished | Devil's Lake Daily Journal

by Louise Oleson, editor DLJ If you’ve driven anywhere near the corner of Sixth Street and Sixth Avenue NE in Devils Lake you will have noticed the work being done on the St. Olaf Lutheran Church’s

by Louise Oleson, editor DLJ

If you’ve driven anywhere near the corner of Sixth Street and Sixth Avenue NE in Devils Lake you will have noticed the work being done on the St. Olaf Lutheran Church’s stained glass windows. The congregation has long been concerned about the condition of its beautiful windows, since even to the naked eye, it was obvious that the North Dakota weather extremes with its cold wet winters and hot dry summers was taking its toll.

Starting in 2015 church leaders and church council members have voted to have the building’s windows evaluated by an expert in the field. They were able to do that earlier this year when Architect Bobbi Hepper Olson did that evaluation of the building and its windows. Hepper Olson specializes in restoration and repair of rural churches. She’s presently overseeing the restorations of the Crue Church in Buxton, ND, long abandoned, it is being turned into a community center and gathering space.

It was her mission to evaluate St. Olaf’s building and windows to determine where and what the most critical needs were. That official report has yet to be received, but she did go through the building with staff and pointed out areas that needed attention, the stained glass windows among them.

A company that specializes in this kind of work, Associate Crafts Willet Hauser, brought a specialist who would do the hands-on work with the windows, Oliver Fournier, who is repairing cracks in the stained glass with a polimer substance – much as one would repair a crack in a windshield – repairing and/or replacing rotting wood cills and window frames and installing on the outside of each window plexiglass to seal in the entire window keeping it safe from the elements, but with venting at the bottom to allow heat and moisture to excape.

Fournier lives in Texas but is originally from Paris, France – you can tell by the accent when you speak to him, his is NOT a Texas accent!

He began his work in early September and expects he will be finishing his work on the windows soon, maybe this week. The price tag for this major project? It is estimated to be nearly $150,000 but part of that amount has already been paid as the church members wished to lock in this year’s costs with a downpayment of $30,000, local contributions and a grant received through Partners for Sacred Spaces’ Nordic Church Project. St. Olaf met the criteria for it to be considered a “Cohort” Nordic Church.

Pastor Lori Pankratz and Office Manager Darci Gilbertson attended two different sessions required by Sacred Spaces to learn about options for fundraising and determining the importance of St. Olaf to the community of Devils Lake. The subsequent grant written by Pastor and Gilbertson was successful and brings in additional monies to help with the final costs of the project.

Some history

It’s been called “The Cathedral on the Prairie” and has hosted countless weddings, baptisms and funerals through the years. Can anything beat the twice-annual rummage sales in Spring and Fall, yearly Lutefisk and Meatball Dinner or its Holiday Bazaar?

St. Olaf was something of a miracle, right from its very beginnings. The big, beautiful brick church at the corner of Sixth Street and Sixth Avenue NE was built at the very beginning of the Great Depression. Work began in April and was finished in October. The church started the fundraising in 1929, collected quite a bit of money through the sale of bonds, then lost it as the person in charge of the bond sales ran off with the funds leaving the congregation to begin fundraising all over again. The building was paid off by 1940, ten years after its dedication. The cost then was $50,000. In today’s funds that would be approximately $5 Million.

In the booklet that accompanied the dedication on October 19, 1930, it spoke about the windows of the sanctuary. “The high Gothic arch over the steps leading to the altar, and the art window over the altar serve to draw the attention of the congregation to the holy place…”

“The windows of the church are large as well as beautiful and with the stained glass in the lighter colors afford excellent light and give the church a dignified and yet cheerful appearance.”

“The chancel window deserves special mention. This is a painted window. The subject of the window is the Ascension: the triumphant Christ, his work of Redemption finished, ascending to heaven being received by angels, the disciples gazing upward with wonder and longing. The Art Glass was donation by the Cheerful, Happy and Willing Workers. ($1,299.00 for Art Glass to the Pittsburgh Plate Glass Co., Minneapolis, Minn.)”

The chancel window

In The History of St. Olaf from 1987 there was a hand written note from Albert J. Larscheid, Designer and Executor Imported and Domestic Leaded Glass dated October 14, 1930 to the pastor of St. Olaf.

He wrote, “Please note there are at least 1,835 pieces of selected pieces of glass in the chancel window, and in as much of the coloring is in the glass, the pigment only gives form to the figures. The coloring is indestructible and practically all the glass is imported antique from Germany, France and England with a small amount from Belgium, so you see glass from all those countries have contributed to beautifying your church. Your window can justly be termed an ‘antique glass mosaic’.”

A sugestion: If you have affection for St. Olaf Lutheran Church in Devils Lake, ND, for any reason, you can be part of this remarkable project with your donation to St. Olaf Lutheran Church “Stained Glass Window” project, 601 6th Street NE, Devils Lake, ND, 58301.