Restoration of the Church of Our Lady Immaculate in Guelph, Ontario has been a multi stage project carried out over a number of years. Over 550 individual stained glass panels totally about 3,250 sq. feet have been removed from the building, had their condition assessed, documented, and then carefully restored and re-installed. The majority of the windows in the church were created in Reims, France circa 1907 by Albert Louis Vermonet.
Work began on several years ago on the clerestory windows. Here you can see a birds eye view from the scaffold which was erected to provide the crew with access.
This is clerestory window number 19 of 20. The windows were originally installed from the inside of the church and had protective glass glazing on the exterior. It was decided, in discussion with the consultant, to discontinue the use of exterior glazing. It can cause moisture build up and subsequently wood rot in the frames. Without exterior glazing, the stained glass had to be moved to the exterior of the frames. This required each panel to be re-sized to fit in the slightly different openings.
The picture below is a good example of the style and character of the windows in this church. These windows are located in the north transept. The total height of each group is about twenty feet.
When the windows were removed for restoration, every section was given a unique identifying number and photographed in both reflected and transmitted light. After restoration, each panel was again photographed in the same way, thus creating a record of any changes or repairs that were carried out. You can see how much grime had accumulated and was then removed from the panels during restoration.
