A jeweled stained-glass window designed by Louis Comfort Tiffany's studio is glowing again inside Second Presbyterian Church in Chicago's South Loop, following a lengthy hand restoration that returned it to the sanctuary in June. The church at 1936 S. Michigan Ave. celebrated the window's return with a community gathering on September 19, giving neighbors and admirers a chance to see the piece up close for the first time since it came down for repair.
The window is one of 12 monumental stained-glass windows in the church's sanctuary, according to Block Club Chicago, and it's the fourth to be restored as part of an ongoing preservation campaign. Nine of those 12 windows were designed by Tiffany's firm, spanning years of craftsmanship that the church's own history page says stretched from 1892 to 1918. The sanctuary also holds work by other notable makers, including Edward Burne-Jones for Morris & Co. and Louis J. Millet, according to the same church history.
Standing more than 16 feet tall, the jeweled window contains roughly 12,000 pieces of glass, according to Fox 32 Chicago. Outlets differ on the window's exact age, with Fox 32 describing it as 133 years old and ABC7 Chicago putting it at 132 years old, while Block Club Chicago's reporting cited it as a 134-year-old piece — a discrepancy that traces back to conflicting dating of the 1893 design. The window also contains roughly 1,000 rough-cut glass jewels, small faceted pieces designed to capture and refract light like a diamond.
A Marshall Field Connection and a Careful Restoration
The window was originally donated by the Marshall Field family, according to Fox 32, and Block Club Chicago's reporting traces that gift specifically to an ancestor of Marshall Field V, who gave the window to the church in 1927. Marshall Field V later contributed to the modern restoration campaign, which the outlet reports was announced in 2023.
Restoring the piece fell to artisan Tom Venturella, who owns a studio in upstate New York, and his partner Jim Murphy. Reports vary on exactly how long the work took: CBS News Chicago reported the pair spent 14 months on the restoration, while Fox 32 put the figure at 15 months. The cost is similarly disputed, with CBS News Chicago citing a $750,000 price tag for the project, while Block Club Chicago's reporting cited a $700,000 figure for the restoration Venturella and Murphy worked on.
Whatever the exact numbers, the process itself was painstaking. Fox 32 describes the tedious craft of cleaning, repairing and reassembling century-old glass as work that must be done entirely by hand, and Block Club Chicago reports that Venturella and Murphy removed and examined each individual piece of glass before the window was completely re-leaded. Some historic glass had become incompatible with modern restoration materials and had to be replaced entirely, according to that reporting.
From Skeptic to Believer
Venturella told Block Club Chicago that his relationship with Tiffany's aesthetic wasn't love at first sight — he said he initially disliked the Tiffany style before coming to appreciate the sophistication of the art over the course of the restoration. Reflecting on seeing the finished window back in place, he told the outlet, “It's a little surreal, but surreal is wonderful.”
The restoration wasn't limited to glass alone. According to Block Club Chicago, the broader restoration team also worked on frames, masonry, plaster repair and painting, with support from Wiss, Janney, Elstner Associates and Bulley Andrews Masonry Restoration on design and construction elements. More than 200 people donated to the overall restoration effort, per CBS News Chicago.
Karen Lamb, who has served as a church docent for 10 years, told Block Club Chicago that the restored colors bring out more than just the artistry. “The blues and greens come forward, along with the history of the neighborhood,” she said. Andy Pierce, also quoted in that reporting, said the church deliberately waited for cooler weather to hold the celebration and delayed it further to allow time to remove interior scaffolding and complete additional mural restoration work.
More Windows, and a Historic Landmark, Still to Explore
Four of the church's 12 sanctuary windows have now been restored, according to Block Club Chicago, with eight windows still remaining on Venturella and Murphy's list. The preservation effort, which ABC7 Chicago reports first began in 2018, isn't close to finished — Preservation Chicago notes that several other windows throughout the sanctuary and building still need care.
The church previously restored its “Mount of the Holy Cross” Tiffany window, a 16-foot-high, 18-panel piece depicting angels at the base of a Colorado mountain, returning it to the sanctuary in the summer of 2024 after roughly a year of work, according to a release from the church itself. That restoration is part of the same broader campaign now bringing the jeweled window back to life.
The church's Arts and Crafts interior was declared a National Historic Landmark in 2013, per the church's history page, and its Tiffany windows continue to draw admirers from across the globe, per Block Club Chicago's reporting. Visitors will have another chance to see the windows up close when Second Presbyterian Church joins other Chicago landmarks for Open House Chicago on October 17-18, with the church open from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. Saturday and 1 p.m. to 5 p.m. Sunday. The church also offers guided weekend tours for those who can't make the Open House Chicago dates.
