In 2001, with only a handful of members left, the First Congregational Church in downtown Chattanooga, held its last service.
Established on July 9, 1867, construction on the present building began in 1902.
The stained glass windows were installed in the 1920’s
and after over 80 years have bore the full brunt of nature's seasons. By 2007, every stained glass panel
had distorted from their original shape and had missing and broken individual pieces of glass.
In early 2006, developer Ken Crisp purchased the property, and with financial help from the Lyndhurst Foundation,
RiverCity Company, and Cornerstones, commissioned stained glass artist Bob Zakas to totally restore
all the stained glass in the church.
Restoration on the stained glass windows was begun in Aug. of 2007. The sixty-seven stained glass windows, containing over 5,000 individual pieces of glass
were removed from the old church and transferred to our Hixson, Tennessee Studio.
Each panel was separated from its frame and disassembled. Each piece of glass was hand cleaned
before the panels could be reassembled. Missing panels were replicated to original specifications.
The frames were also in need of extreme restoration.
Reinstallation of the stained glass took place in May of 2008.
Today, although the building's interior is still being renovated,
the stained glass windows gleam as brilliantly as they did almost a century ago.
The church located at the corner of M.L. King Boulevard and Lindsay Street in Chattanooga, Tennessee
is now under way to apply for a National Historic Register designation.
