Restoration of stained-glass window Knox Presbyterian Church complete

Knox Presbyterian Church’s renovations took a big step forward this week with the unveiling of the restored stained glass windows facing Ontario Street.

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The project has been in the works for about two years, shortly after BMI group purchased the 110-year-old building – now known as Copperlight.

Restoring the stained-glass window was part of the conversation when the development company was purchasing the property, BMI’s facilities manager Leonard Stannard said.

“This is one of the main churches here in Stratford, and nobody has seen the big stained-glass window in a long time. It was so dirty and covered up and damaged glass and stuff, so they decided that this was something that they were going to give back to Stratford and give back to the church.”

There were several challenges with the restoration project, Stannard continued. The window had iron beams running across that cut into the window frame, causing substantial damage. It was also covered with two layers, including one layer of glass storm windows and a layer of plexiglass, which wasn’t vented. Moisture and dirt built up and caused the glass to fade.

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To complete the project, BMI hired Roof Tile Management, a Mississauga-based company that specializes in heritage restoration projects, though further problems were discovered when the window shifted in place and “did a big wave one day,” Stannard said.

This led to the discovery that the once one-inch raw steel pins and mortar that held the cement framework pieces together had shrunk. To fix the issue, Roof Tile Management added four beams into the cement underneath the bricks, re-cemented the area and put the bricks back.

“You cannot tell when you’re up there that any of the bricks had been moved,” Stannard said. “They did a really, really fine job of it.”

Taking ownership of the building was not far outside of BMI’s scope of interest, Stannard added. Although bringing it up to code took work, there was no reason to build a brand new church, he said.

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“Ask anyone in Stratford what they think of the church, and do they want a new church built rather than have this one stay here?” he said. “I don’t think they’d want a new one built.”

While the church congregation has continued to use the building for its worship meetings and outreach programs, signing a 10-year lease with BMI, former users of the site, Stratford Arts and Culture Collective, stepped away from the project last year. Chair Ron Dodson said at that time the organization and BMI Group were unable to reach a consensus as to how best to move forward.

Along with the stained glass windows, several other improvements have already been made to the church or are still ongoing, like scraping the inside walls of the old paint and fixing leaks. Given the size of the building and “things that come up all the time,” it’s hard to say when the entire project will be done, Stannard said.

“It’s a big building. It’s an old building. There’s bits and pieces of stuff that need to be done to it, or that can be done to it. It just depends on how and when.”

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