Winona stained glass company honors 125 years of tradition with generations of creativity

Jun. 27—WINONA, Minn. — The halo effect around Jesus Christ needed more of a shine. Melissa Janda worked to cement the effect on a series of stained glass windows in yet another trip to the kiln.

The ongoing restoration project lays between artists' light tables at the Associated Crafts & Willet Hauser Architectural Glass studio in Winona. In piecing together the glass sheets, forming texture and restoring life to old windows, Janda said the process is a powerful experience. "This is like my little chapel right here," Janda described the studio. Each layer adds decoration, narrative and emotion.

"It has a way of transforming an environment and setting you into its place ... other materials don't seem to have that kind of quality. And I know that it's because it works with light itself," Janda said. "Then glass being this wondrous material, it's transparent in color and it has its own life."

She creates with the "weird, crazy and wonderful material" of glass daily as the art department manager. From new projects to replicating sections of windows, Janda has worked with "high context projects" for about 30 years.

The light tables in the studio also shone with projects, including a rare opportunity to grace the halls of the St. Charles Borromeo Catholic Church. The local project started a few years ago with windows added based on fundraising. Six sets of windows settled into their home in the church's sanctuary on June 7, 2023. Staff sent images of the progress and waited to surprise Fr. Timothy Biren with the new pieces.

"I really enjoy having those personal connections to it that really gives it some really great meaning and it makes me want to create it as faithfully as possible," Janda said.

Windows bring in the creativity of the artists, the vision of the organization and the history of stained glass. One St. Charles window depicts 16th-century Archbishop of Milan Charles Borromeo holding the Elba church building — their shared history not to be forgotten.

While Janda said there used to be more glass studios, Associated Crafts & Willet Hauser is one of the few remaining as it celebrates 125 years. The studio will host open house tours from 12:30 to 4 p.m. on Sept. 12 at 1685 Wilkie Drive, Winona.

"Winona is known as the stained glass capital of the United States," said Julie Biggerstaff, Associated Crafts & Willet Hauser historical archivist. "It makes it sound like it's because we have the most stained-glass windows per capita, but it really is because we have had so many stained-glass studios here in Winona. Over half a dozen at certain times in Winona's history."

The first Willet Stained Glass and Decorating Company windows shone in 1898 in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania — already an "old world craft" formed in the Middle East, Europe and Asia. As artists, William and Anne Lee Willet crafted alongside artist John La Farge and architect Ralph Adams Kram before winning the commission for the U.S. Military Academy West Point. Their West Point projects formed the longest stained-glass commission from 1911 to 1977, according to Biggerstaff.

The partnership "propelled" the studio into the American stained-glass world, Biggerstaff said. The

Stained Glass Association of America

notes William Willet as establishing "the foundation for a new twentieth century (Gothic) revival," which he shared with their son Henry. The Gothic-style churches on the East Coast diverged from the opalescent windows that contained an opaque, milky quality.

"(William Willet) really rebelled against those opalescent glass windows because it wasn't the true European way they made stained glass," Biggerstaff said.

The Willets would grow and pass on their business to Henry, who would later pass it on to his son E. Crosby, who experimented with window styles and expanded the studio's reach.

"Stained glass is more closely related to music than easel painting for it is the light passing through the colored glass that sets up the vibrations which instill in the soul of the beholder a gloriously reverent feeling," Henry Lee Willet wrote in March 1939.

When James E. Hauser started the Hauser Art Glass Company in Winona in 1946, he set a path for restoring church windows following World War II. The projects later expanded to hotels, restaurants and homes.

"He would go into a church and he would sit for hours and just watch how the light moved, and he was really good at choosing windows in a whole demonstration," Biggerstaff described of Henry Willet.

Records of those windows are still available at the Winona studio's library, with about 90% of client files intact after 1930. It's a library that was organized over 50 years by Helene Harmon Martin Weis who worked with the Willets. Biggerstaff scans archive materials "so it never gets lost," though the archive includes 20,000 original renderings. Other pieces were donated to the Smithsonian, the Philadelphia Free Library and West Point.

Willet windows still reflect the "Willet blue from projects around the turn of the century (that) had a lot of that rich blues and the reds in them," vice president of production Garrick Holey said, describing of windows in Winona and Minneapolis. The windows with "very stylized figures" are made to last hundreds of years with maintenance.

"I think its always ... had the feel of a family-run business," Holey said of his 17 years with the company.

When the Willet and Hauser studios merged in 1977 their histories combined, as did their geographical reaches across the United States and internationally. The Winona studio became their central location when Associated Crafts purchased the company.

"Now, Hauser was more known for restoration than new windows where Willet, at that time, it was like forging American stained glass in the United States with new windows and new builds and a lot of churches being built back then," Biggerstaff said.

From clear glass to beauty-laced, the designers and artists build details as the windows flow through the studios over the months and yearslong process. The glass is cut color by color to make a masterpiece. It's a puzzle that the artists build themselves, as studio journeyman Lori Wendt remarked.

They're "storytelling," Holey said, "in a visual form." People can see the fingerprints of artists — literally — in stained-glass pieces around the U.S., including sets in Winona's Levee Park.

"I have a lot of favorite windows in Winona," Holey said.

He came "bright-eyed" to the stained glass industry with a start in restoration, including Tiffany windows, and its restored and newly created windows often make his travel list. All windows shine with opportunity from "more freedom" with fresh windows and lessons from old windows, Janda said.

Artists use mouth-blown glass from Germany and rolled glass from the U.S., though they prefer the "antique" of mouth-blown glass, Janda said. The space's light conditions also impact texture choices in glass selection. Janda described glass as a transformational material that "moves with light."

"Obviously, the narrative that we can add by telling a story gives it richness but the material itself — the way that it really has a life of its own to me — is what really transforms a space into something that's immediately calming and contemplative, and I'm sure that's why it finds itself into worship spaces," Janda said.

Each project tries to rely on the glass' base color with mostly "earthy" paint colors added. Sprinkled throughout the designs are hidden gems like the Peanuts character Schroeder playing the piano, the Elba fire tower and Sugarloaf Bluff.

"We get the fun part" working in the studio, said artist Manley Dahler, who started in 1976. The artists rarely see their creations after they leave the studio to meet the installation crews. He said it's an honor to be part of the history of stained glass and add his mark on restoring windows. The company works on a "handful" of Minnesota projects yearly with more of a national focus, Holey said.

One of Dahler's paintings returned to the studio 40 years later: the face on an English window. He was determined to recreate the face with more replication experience. Dahler retired for a few years and re-joined the team for a monthlong project six years ago. "I always loved what I did," Dahler remarked.

With many ways to paint and honor the tradition of stained glass, their artists from across the U.S. focus on "handmade quality," Holey said.

"It's just a joy to work with the color and the artwork every day," Janda said with a smile. "I feel lucky to be able to do this.

"The fact that I like to draw and paint, obviously, it's captivating just to be able to do that every day, and then have that installed into something that's made to last for generations it inspires me to do the best that I can," Janda said.

Holey said Associated Crafts & Willet Hauser is "very innovative" while keeping aspects that make the windows longstanding. He added experiments in the 1950s-1970s weren't always successful, such as an adhesive that did not stay with UV interaction. Willet windows are also returning to the studio for restoration after their first 100 years of sharing beauty.

"For me personally working in this industry, it's the ability to create something that's bigger than us but also to create something that's lasting," Holey said. "In today's society, where everything is somewhat disposable and has a very short life span, ... everything we make is 100 plus years of lifespan. And then from there it can be restored and last for centuries beyond that."

With a paper library turning digital, the renderings are a sales tool for future window scenes. The letters, too, have turned to email, phone calls and Zoom meetings. Client files include full-size drawings of the windows — in a digital form — allowing them to efficiently make replacement pieces.

"I think (stained glass) plays the same role it did even 100 years ago," Holey said. "Its primary purpose is to beautify a structure traditionally in a worship space, and in my mind, I love that a lot of stained glass tells the story of whether it be depicting a saint in certain symbolism that identify that saint or specific Bible stories and illustrating those stories."

From a window restoration in Plainview to vibrant new windows in St. Charles, Janda said "(glass) engages you. It creates an environment that you're interacting with it." While the St. Charles church sanctuary was loud in early June, marketing and recruitment manager Amanda Steine rested as the first windows carefully slid into place.

"If you would have asked me 10 years ago what the new window market looks like, I wouldn't have thought we would be as busy as we are creating new stained-glass windows for brand new churches that are being built," Holey said. "It's amazing to me, too, that people are investing in that quality of artwork and wanting to invest in things that last for a generation."