St. Stephen’s Parish in Pittsfield, N.H., with its strong community and rich history, is home to a stunning rendition of The Good Samaritan, made by Connick Studios in Boston. As with most of Connick’s windows, it’s filled with colorful glass that’s heavily painted, and with bold lines and organic shapes. In the fall of 2022, we conducted a full restoration of the window and the vent that sits below.

We can’t overstate the importance of good upfront documentation on a project like this. With so many similar shapes in use, the details in our rubbings, along with the close-ups we captured through the camera, were critical to helping us rebuild the window exactly as it was.

We found something uncommon for a Connick of this era: In the photos below, you’ll see that the plates are yellow flashed glass, that have been acid-etched, in order to transition form yellow to clear. The effect is so subtle, that if we hadn’t had them taken apart, we likely wouldn’t have noticed it. In order to preserve this effect, we wrapped the plated areas with copper foil, keeping dirt and debris from getting between the layers of glass.

Throughout the window, there are sweet little details painted into the shadows. The beauty of restoring this window piece-by-piece is that we got to see all of them.

It was an honor to play a part in the preservation of this beautiful window, and we’re grateful to the St. Stephens congregation for choosing us to do the work.