When architects began developing plans to restore Baltimore's Basilica of the Assumption several years ago, one of the touchiest aspects of the project was deciding the fate of nine stained-glass windows created and installed there in the 1940s.
The windows, designed by Conrad Schmidt Studios of New York, portray scenes from the Old Testament, the New Testament and Maryland and Catholic history. They have become a familiar part of the cathedral, which was built between 1806 and 1821. Most parishioners alive today have never seen the building without them.
The restoration architects, John G. Waite Associates of Albany and Beyer Blinder Belle of New York, concluded early on that the guiding principle for all future work should be to restore the basilica to the original design by architect Benjamin Henry Latrobe and his patron, Archbishop John Carroll.
In keeping with that philosophy, the architects recommended removing the stained-glass windows, and other 20th-century modifications, and taking the interior back as much as possible to the way Latrobe envisioned it in the early 19th century. Although the stained-glass windows are well-crafted, they say, they aren't in keeping with the original design, which called for clear windows.
But that recommendation also raised a potentially thorny issue: If the stained-glass windows were to be removed, what would happen to them?
The Archdiocese of Baltimore has come up with a solution: The nine windows will be incorporated in a new church being designed for the Saint Louis Roman Catholic Congregation in the Clarksville section of western Howard County.
Cardinal William Keeler has approved a plan that calls for the windows to be "on permanent loan" to the Saint Louis congregation and incorporated into the $8 million, 1,250-seat church it is building off Route 108, just south of Route 32, to replace a 1980 structure it has outgrown. Ziger Snead Inc. of Baltimore is the architect.
Monsignor Joseph Luca said the congregation dates from 1855 and now has 4,500 families, or about 15,000 individuals. He said he suggested to Cardinal Keeler that the Saint Louis parish would be a good location for the windows and regards the decision to move them there a "wonderful blessing" for the new church.
"They're exceptionally beautiful works of art," he said. "We had planned to have stained-glass windows for our church. ... It's a wonderful fit."
