Hackley Public Library to celebrate stained-glass restoration

November 12, 2008
Muskegon Chronicle
Lynn Moore

MUSKEGON - Now that the stained-glass windows at Hackley Public Library have been restored, it's time to thank those who made the expensive proposition possible.

That's why the library is hosting a public event Friday called "Giving Thanks for Friends" that will include a presentation by the Virginia firm that restored the 118-year-old windows.

The restoration was made possible by a fundraising effort that started 13 years ago and raised enough to pay for the $110,000 project, said Martha L. Ferriby, director of Hackley Public Library.

"The library board is honoring all the people who did so much to make the stained-glass restoration possible," Ferriby said.

The 2 p.m. event at the library, 316 W. Webster, also will include a presentation by restorers, who will explain the tedious process of dismantling, cleaning, repairing and reinstalling the library's 44 windows.

The restorers, from Stained Glass of Shenandoah in Fort Royal, Va., also will talk about Louis Millet, the man who designed the windows, Ferriby said.

Millet was considered a premier stained-glass designer of his day, "right up there with Tiffany," Ferriby said.

The windows "are not just neat because we live here and we like them," Ferriby said. "They're significant in the world of stained glass and historic stained glass."

The best-known stained-glass panels are those in the main floor reading room that include portraits of four writers popular in the late 1800s. Ferriby said the cleaning of the windows revealed to her a red scarf or cape on William Shakespeare she had not previously noticed.

As part of the restoration, thermal windows that protect the stained glass were replaced. Those windows were installed in 1977, and at that time a big goof was made, which went unnoticed until Stained Glass of Shenandoah was removing the windows last summer.

It turns out when 15 stained-glass panels in the stairwell were reinstalled with the new thermal windows, they were put in backwards, Ferriby said. Now that they're installed properly, they look "very different," she said.

"They actually sparkle now, and they make colored patterns on the wall," Ferriby said. "They didn't do that before."

Donors to the restoration project include the Community Foundation for Muskegon County, which gave $20,000; Dr. Barry Willbrandt of Tennessee and formerly of Muskegon, who gave $10,000; and the Hackley Heritage Association, which donated $5,000. In addition, the Friends of Hackley Public Library hosted two Parties in the Park, book sales and the play "Death by Chocolate" to raise money for the project.