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A divine intervention
Princeton Chapel gets major restoration
By Jeff Milgram
The Princeton Packet
Tuesday, April 3, 2001
Stained-glass journeyman Kenneth Lambides works on one of the windows at the Princeton University Chapel.
Staff photo by Mark Czajkowski
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PRINCETON — Scaffolding covers the collegiate Gothic walls of the Princeton University Chapel as workers repair and re-point the exterior stonework, while inside, the beautiful, but grimy stained-glass windows are being restored to their original glory.
"With restoration, you don't work to make it better, you just want to make it the way is was," said Robin Bell, the stained-glass supervisor for Femenella & Associates of Annandale, the subcontractor for the windows.
In all, 27 windows will be removed, photographed, separated into sections, packed in foam insulation, crated up and sent to studios in Massachusetts, New York and Pennsylvania, which will do the cleaning and restoration work, Ms. Bell said.
"Each panel is numbered and marked," she said.
So far, 14 of the 15 windows on the south side of the building have been removed, repaired and reinstalled, university officials said. Workers are now removing the 12 windows on the north side.
This is the first restoration of the windows since the chapel was built in 1925-1926. When it was built, the chapel was the second-largest university chapel in the world, second only to King's College Chapel in Cambridge, England, after which it was modeled. It is currently the third largest.
Restoration work began in January 2000 and is scheduled to be completed by this December, said Robert Kelly, the site supervisor for Masonry Preservation Group of Merchantville, the general contractor.
Ms. Bell believes the restoration is the largest stained-glass project in the United States in the past 25 years.
Some of the windows are so soot-covered that it's impossible to determine their colors. The lead "cames," which hold the pieces together, suffer metal fatigue and must be replaced, Ms. Bell said.
The studios take photographs and rubbings to document the windows and to fabricate the cames, clean the glass, replace cracked glass, re-lead the windows, waterproof the windows and send them back to the chapel to be reinstalled.
Mr. Kelly is working closely with the project architect Ford Farewell Mills and Gatsch of Princeton; David Howe, the project coordinator for the university; and chapel administrators.
"Everything's been well planned out," said Mr. Kelly, who has worked on other college campus restoration projects.
The restoration work hasn't shut the chapel; Catholic Mass continues to be celebrated from noon to 12:30 p.m. during the week, and weddings, worship services and special concerts are held on weekends.
In order to protect the organ from dust and damage, it has been covered with plastic sheeting and protected by scaffolding. In its place is a digital organ.
For more stories from The Princeton Packet, go to www.princetonpacket.com.
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