November 21, 2014
St. Patrick's Catholic Church in Lincoln, NE recently acquired a historic set of stained glass windows from St. Mary's Hospital in Nebraska City, NE. The windows were located in the hospital's chapel, but with the hospital's move to a a new facility, the stained glass windows were in need of a new home. The donation of the windows came just as construction began St. Patrick's new church, but as providence would have it, the Nebraska City windows were nearly an exact fit into the planned nave window openings. Clark Architects were able to adjust the window openings to fit these exquisite windows.
The stained glass windows from St. Mary's Hospital Chapel depict the five Joyful Mysteries of the Holy Rosary, plus a sixth window of Our Lady giving the rosary to St. Dominic. The windows were made by Emil Frei and Associates in St. Louis, MO and date from the hospital's opening in the 1920s.
Emil Frei, one of the oldest stained glass firms in the country, has been hired by St. Patrick's to do the repair work on the windows. The great-great-grandchildren of Emil Frei were in Nebraska last week to remove the stained glass windows that their family produced nearly a century ago. The windows were taken back to St. Louis where they will be cleaned and repaired in their studio.
The Nebraska City windows, along with two windows from a closed parish in Omaha and the two existing stained glass windows in the current St. Patrick's church, will return to Nebraska and installed in the new St. Patrick's church just prior to its dedication next year.
