The large north window was being reinstalled on the former Cumberland Church on March 8, 2024.
Restoring Albany’s historic Cumberland Church building is proceeding bit by bit, and one milestone in the long process was reached last week.
A nonprofit composed of volunteers, the Cumberland Community Events Center is working on getting the building ready for — as the name implies — private and public events.
Last week I heard from Emma Eaton, the group’s president. She told me that the first of the stained-glass windows had been restored and were about to be put back in place
On Friday, I stopped to take a look as a crew from Willamette Window Restoration, from Eugene, was re-installing the biggest of the windows on the building’s north side.
Joel Orton, the Cumberland’s vice president, told me the group had called for competitive bids for restoring all the windows (there are 14 of them), and Willamette submitted the low bid at a little over $50,000.
For the windows on the north side, including the large one in the center, the price was just under $19,000, and the Cymberland went ahead with that. A grant from the Oregon Cultural Trust is covering $11,134 of the total.
This was a big job. In an email, Orton described what it involved:
“The windows were removed and replaced temporarily with plywood. Once in the shop, the glass was removed (repaired/replaced as needed) and cleaned, the wood frames had the paint stripped and then sanded, stained and varnished (interior surfaces) and painted (exterior surfaces). The glass was reinstalled with new glazing putty. The two double-hung windows were made operational again by replacing the weights and pulley ropes.”
The rest of the building’s windows will be restored when the Cumberland group has the money to do so.
Orton said there’s talk of a possible five-day workshop to train about 15 volunteers to work on five windows on the west side of the building. (That’s the part that was added in 1917. The original structure dates from 1892.)
The workshop was proposed by Chris Gustafson, owner of Vintage Window Restoration in Albany, who Orton said was seeking funding.
In an email, Orton wrote:
“Through this process we have learned that window restoration work requires a fairly unique skill set and those involved are part of a small community of craftsmen who all know one another. I suspect we will be working closely with both Chris and Julie Whalen from Willamette Window to get the windows restored as funding becomes available.”
Work continues on the inside of the building, which was moved to a vacant lot at 1400 Santiam Road, at the corner with Pine Street, in October 2021.
The long-range plan is to add a new wing to the former church, but for now Orton told me the group hopes to get the existing building in good enough shape to host events as early as possible, perhaps by early next year. (hh)
Inside the former Cumberland Church on Friday, March 8, 2024.
Since I have been asked several times, YES, I did the stained glass replacements. My job was to obtain and cut the replacement pieces to size. ALL the openings that were supposed to be equal in size were not, and as such had to be cut to size using the actual opening as opposed to measurements. All replacement stained glass considered historic in nature. This type of glass has one of my favorite names in the business: “New-Antique.”
Thanks for the update Hasso. I had wondered what exactly was being done since when driving by I noticed that the window was boarded up with what looked like, to me, vertical boards (Cedar?) with horizontal pieces of like material. It didn’t look “temporary” and who ever did the job should be complimented. It looked better than most temp repairs.
My apologies to Jeff. I failed to mention the important role he played in the window restoration. He, too, is a member of that small community of craftsmen involved in window restoration and we are fortunate to have in the area.