The Lyn Hovey Studio, charged with the restoration of all the figural and cathedral glass in the nave and chapels at All Saints', is now hard at work restoring the last window–Henry Goodhue's the Adoration of the Magi and Shephards. See the early September update (here) for a brief history and description of this window.

Among the depredations suffered by this window was the "scarring" on the faces and hands of the central figures of the mother and child. The paint used for these features has failed substantially. Our Lady seems to have contracted alopecia at the central part in her hair and a biblical leprosy on her face, neck, and hands. The Christ Child seems similarly afflicted.

The restoration technique for this is complicated and challenging. It is important to preserve the historic material of the window. So the remedy for these visual defects caused by age and dirt is to do no more than clean the original glass. Instead repairing the defects directly, a new layer of glass will be plated to the interior of side of these pieces. These new pieces have been reverse painted with line detail and matte painting to visually supplement the areas of paint failure in the original glass.

It is a particularly difficult challenge to restore the work of the original artist, for the second, restoring artist must paint the new glass to exactly match the painting on the existing glass. This painting is reverse to the original composition and the artist must add only so much as will restore the original definition and value intended by the window's first artist, without overwhelming the original work.

Once the reverse painting is complete, the new piece is plated to the original piece, and copper tape is applied to edge of the two pieces before being reinserted into new lead cames. In fact, throughout this window, in every place where the original craftman employed two-, three-, or four-ply of glass, these edges will also be sealed against infiltrating dirt.

The last major stained glass window to be restored is the 1896 Adoration by Kings and Shepherds by Harry Eldredge Goodhue and manufactured in the studio of the firm Phipps, Slocum & Co. Like the architects' window, it constructed of layered or "plated" opalescent glass. Different to antique and cathedral glass in the rest of the church, opalescent glass is "characterized by a milky opacity." In this window, paint is used only on the flesh and inscriptions. Jewels are used to embellish the hems and sleeves of the kings' robes, and drapery glass is used for clothing. Some jewels are made by pressing molten glass into smooth or faceted steel molds. Other jewels are faceted with hammers.

The window was originally planned to occupy the opening above the altar, although within a year of its completion, Cram and Mrs. Peabody were planning a large altar reredos to cover that window opening.

John LaFarge began using opalescent glass in layers in the late 1870s and Louis Comfort Tiffany is widely known for producing windows with this glass. At the turn of the last century, the rift between those favoring use of opalescent glass and those who opposed it caused bitter divisions in the congregations commissioning new windows and among the artists producing them. Cram came to detest opalescent glass and this window's artist was working exclusively in antique and cathedral glass by the time of his death.

Because they are constructed of two and more layers of glass set in wide-hearted, lead cames, opalescent glass windows require greater technical sophistication to fabricate and they can suffer disproportionately from the depredations of time, a polluted urban environment, and simple gravity. As with all the windows at All Saints, up to now, the Adoration window has not been properly shielded with adequate exterior protective glazing. Rather, Lexan sheets were loosely attached to the exterior profile of the window tracery in the 1970s to protect the windows from vandalism. With the exception the architects' window, the Adoration window was in the worst condition and in most need of restoration. Julie L. Sloan, in her 2011 Condition Analysis of the stained glass at All Saints', noted that this window was is in fair to poor condition throughout, the cames severely sagging, and a heavy deposit of dirt on the interior and exterior surfaces and between the plated pieces.

It was with heroic skill that the outside operations crew of the Lyn Hovey Studio was able to remove the three large lancets of this window intact. Each lancet is 26 inches wide and over eight feet tall. They are of great weight because of the two-, three-, and four-ply plating, all with severe sagging of the cames at either the top or the bottom. After arrival at the studio, each lancet, except one, was transferred to a light table for in-studio, transmitted-light photographic documentation. The structural deterioration of the central lancet was so severe that it was not possible to transfer this lancet.

Despite its deteriorated condition, The Adoration by the Kings and Shepherds is much beloved by parishioners of All Saints. It was commissioned in early 1896 by them in memory of Amelia Peabody, the two-year-old daughter of the church's patrons, Oliver and Mary Peabody. The dedication reads: "This window is given by the people of All Saints Parish to the glory of God and in tender memory of Amelia White Peabody only child of Oliver White and Mary Lothrop Peabody" with the dates of her birth and untimely death. In the left lancet, Oct 21 1864 and in the right, Aug 31 1866. The people of All Saints' never knew Amelia in life because she died before her parents ever entered the doors of the old wooden building on Dorchester Avenue. As they became acquainted with the Peabody's grief and perhaps in solidarity through their own losses, they grew confident to claim Amelia's tender memory as their own–an anamnesis.

This beloved window further participates in the spiritual life of the parish week by week because it stands above and to the right to the effigy of Our Lady of Dorchester. This statue of Mary and the child Jesus, carved by Angelo Lualdi and installed in 1928, is the focus of the recitation of the Angelus, the concluding devotion at the Sunday solemn mass. Positioned where it is and brilliantly illuminated by the early afternoon sun, The Adoration by the Kings and Shepherds becomes an alternate focus of devotion for clergy, acolytes, and choir who stand along the Lady Chapel aisle.

Julie L. Sloan's 2011 Stained Glass Window Condition Analysis, All Saints' Ashmont, Dorchester, MA and conversations with Lyn Hovey form the basis for the first several paragraphs of this article.

Since 2009, The Parish of All Saints has been planning for and undertaking a comprehensive restoration of its famous 1892 church–the first major work of architect Ralph Adams Cram. Construction began in June of 2013 and will be complete in December of 2014. Given the immensity of the project's scope, tasks fell clearly into primary and secondary categories. Therefore, however mechanically troublesome and musically inadequate, dealing with the problem of the much-rebuilt chancel organ of necessity fell into the wish-list category far behind failing roofs, peeling paint, and long-overdue building systems upgrades.

In the midst of planning, however, the Parish was presented with the opportunity of acquiring a vintage 1929 Skinner organ from a closed church in western Massachusetts. Ideal in size, sound and pedigree, Skinner's Opus 708 would offer a fine solution to the chancel organ issue. Thanks to an initial generous gift from a friend of the Parish, All Saints was able to acquire, ship and store the instrument, arranged through consultant and parishioner Jonathan Ambrosino, restorer Joe Sloane, and the able help of many volunteers from the congregation. Though initially planned for a later installation, successful fundraising has permitted the Parish to move forward with the project, such that the Skinner will be installed and playing in 2015.

Skinner organs excel at choral accompaniment, which is critical in leading the Parish's rare Choir of Men and Boys, founded in 1888. Although once common in Roman Catholic and Episcopal churches, fewer than twenty such ensembles remain in America today. In addition to helping to lead the liturgy at All Saints, the Choir provides structured after-school, weekend, and summer programming for urban boys and teenagers. In this safe, positive environment, boys engage in healthy activities alongside musical mentoring and tutelage.

At All Saints, the Skinner will join the Centennial Organ, C.B. Fisk's Opus 103 of 1995, in the rear gallery. From this commanding position, the Fisk leads congregational singing and provides a thrilling instrument for solo literature. This two-organ arrangement finds a particular corollary to The Memorial Church at Harvard, whose 1930 Skinner serves Appleton Chapel for weekday worship, while the 2012 Fisk leads Sunday mornings and offers a superb recital venue.

There are further links between the two institutions. All Saints and Harvard have recently re-invigorated a historical connection in the form of the Archibald T. Davison Fellowship. This program brings a Harvard Glee Club member to All Saints, where he joins in the singing, assists with rehearsals, and serves as a mentor to Ashmont boys and teens. In return, Ashmont boys occasionally sing with the Glee Club and attend their concerts. (A Dorchester native, Davison was Organist and Choirmaster at All Saints from 1906 until 1910, when he left to take the position of University Organist and Choirmaster at Harvard. In 1912 he began coaching Harvard Glee Club members, to whom he became a beloved figure. In 1919 "Doc" Davison accepted the Glee Club's invitation to become the ensemble's first conductor.)

Last spring, the Joseph G. Bradley Foundation awarded All Saints a $55,000 one-to-one challenge grant to help close the remaining $110,000 gap to fully fund the Skinner project. In addition to the $465,000 already given towards the Skinner, All Saints has raised just over $20,000 towards the Bradley challenge. Therefore, every donation given at Prof. Porter's 21 September 2014 recital will be matched one-to-one by the Bradley Foundation, up to a total of $35,000.

Phase II of the All Saints' building restoration is well underway and the project is headed toward completion in early Winter.

The focus of phase II is the construction of a small, two-story addition to the cloister wing and parish house to accommodate an elevator and a reconfigured stair hall. In addition this phase will see full fire protection extended to the church, and enhancements to the heating, electrical, and lighting systems in both the parish house and the church. The failing, 1980s, white laminate sacristy cabinets will be replaced with oak. This work in the sacristy will fulfill former rector Fr. Titus Oates's vision of a graciously sized and appointed sacristy to support the parish's worship.

As of this writing, the excavation is completed, the foundation slabs and footings for the addition have been poured, and the concrete masonry unit (CMU) walls have been laid for the elevator shaft and the first floor. The old stair hall has been completely demolished and the Lombard Street door has been lowered by six feet and moved east by two feet to provide an accessible entrance to the parish house basement. The limestone surround for the new window at the Guild Hall landing has been installed.

The electricians are roughing in the alarm portion of the fire protection system in the church and the sprinkler subcontractor is installing piping above the ceiling in the chancel.

The site work subcontractor is connecting the rain leaders from church's restored roof and gutter systems to the new underground storm water retention structures.

The Lyn Hovey Studio continues its restoration of the figural glass from the clerestory of the church and from the nave of the Lady Chapel.

The heating contractor is in the midst of replacing the aged steam boiler, distribution, and radiator systems with modern, redundant, hot water boilers, piping, and radiators.

For a more thorough description of the work of both phases, see the update for mid-April.

The work of restoring the fabric of the Parish of All Saints' was broken into roughly two parts so that the first phase could commence before design work for the second phase was complete. Phase I, which is largely complete, addressed the building envelope, including the roof systems, the masonry, and the windows.

All of the slate on the chancel roof, the high roof of the nave, and the aisle roofs has been replaced. Spot repairs have been made to the slate of the parish house. All of the copper work—standing- and flat-seamed roofs, gutters, rain leaders, buttress caps, roof ridges, and flashing—has been replaced.

The masonry of the entire church has been repointed and cleaned. Dutchman repairs have been made to a few selected portions of the sandstone trim. A gracious ADA-compliant ramp has been built from the West Door (geographic north) parallel to Ashmont Street, connecting to a walkway that runs south from the landing to the sidewalk grade.

The diamond quarry (also called, cathedral glass) in the church's clerestory—considered temporary glazing by the builders—has all been removed, unzipped, cleaned, releaded, and largely reinstalled. New protective glazing has been installed into tracery throughout the clerestory to replace the Lexan sheets that were placed over the tracery in the last third of the 20th century. The figural glass in the aisle windows has removed and restored like the clerestory cathedral glass, with the addition that broken pieces that cannot be mended have been replaced with newly painted glass.

The frames for all the windows in the church have been repaired. The tracery for the clerestory was in terrible condition and has been fully restored using like-species dutchman repairs where possible and Honduran mahogany where complete members required replacement. The final caulking and painting of the tracery awaits warm spring weather.

All of the leaded glass windows have been rebuilt for the parish house and in the hyphen connecting the parish house to the church (termed the cloister hall by generations of parishioners). Their installation also awaits warmer weather. The leaded glass was manufactured by the Lyn Hovey Studio in Guatemala. All of the wooden window frames have either been restored or rebuilt. The metal casement frame have all been restored.

New bathrooms in the parish house for women (five stalls) and men (three stalls) have been installed in the former nursery room, while a new nursery room has been constructed in the former locker room.

A new code-compliant stair to the gymnasium replaces the old stair.

The work currently ongoing belongs predominately to phase II. This work consists of construction of an addition for an elevator, site work, refurbishment of the heating system, extension of the sprinkler pipe system to the church, and additional interior restoration.

20th Century Stair Hall History

The five principal public floors floor of the parish are divided between the church and cloister wing (two floors) and the parish house (three floors). When we built the parish house in 1907, we insisted on providing as much space as possible on the land available, without overshadowing the church. So, we excavated as deep as possible and built a three floor building (basement and two upper floors), with a gymnasium sunk an additional half-floor below the basement. With so many floors in the parish house, it was not possible to align these floors with the existing levels of the church and cloister wing, necessitating a clever, but awkward, counterclockwise stair. This capacious stair hall fulfilled its function by forcing its users to go down a half-flight from the first floor Guild Hall before ascending two flights to the second floor Peabody Hall.

To provide accessible access to each of the public levels of the church buildings, an elevator with new lobbies for the parish house floors will be installed in a modest seventeen-by-twenty-foot addition being built at the juncture of the parish house and the cloister wing. This addition will provide a gracious new vestibule and entrance to the parish buildings, housing a five-stop elevator, a wheelchair lift from the parish house basement to the gymnasium, and lobbies.

The former main entrance to the parish house into the fire stair at the northwest corner will return to its original function as a fire exit.

A reconfigured, and smaller, clockwise stair hall will replace the original, awkward stair hall. This new stair hall will fulfill better its function as a fire block between the floors of the two buildings it connects.

In addition the entrance from Lombard Street will be lowered to sidewalk grade to enter into the basement level of the parish house. It currently enters the old stair hall at an odd, half-flight level between parish house floors.

Other dramatic changes to the masonry of the cloister wing will be the removal of two windows and one exterior door, all three of which be inside the new addition. The exterior door will be replaced with a door into the elevator at the church level. The windows will make way for passages from elevator lobbies.

Two sets of windows in the parish house will make way for doorways from elevator lobbies into the Guild Hall (lower hall) and into Peabody Hall.

We are grateful to our architects, John G. Waite Associates of Albany, New York, for their diligent efforts to resolve the tension between accommodating the desired accessible access to the public floors of our well-used buildings and the need to provide an architecturally sensitive addition that respects Ralph Adams Cram's vision for his first and influential ecclesiastical commission.

We started the design process at A and were finally happy when we arrived, twenty or so iterations later, at the design labeled T.

The excavation and site work required to realize this design is simpler to explain. A pit between the parish house and the Lady Chapel was excavated beneath the level of the gymnasium, using a trench box set against the parish house foundation. A concrete slab and foundation for the wheelchair lift from the basement level down to the gymnasium was poured. That trench box was removed and a second trench box was set against the foundation of the cloister wing at a slightly higher level. The slab and foundation for the elevator were then poured.

After back filling against these foundations, a third slab and foundation will be poured north of the location of the elevator for the first floor lobby and vestibule. CMU walls (concrete masonry unit) will be erected for the elevator shaft and the addition's exterior.

The addition will match in style the parish house, being sheathed in brick at the first story and stucco and half-timbering at the second story, employing limestone window surrounds salvaged from the obscured east wall of the parish house.

Other site work, now nearing completion is the installation of a groundwater recharging system to capture storm water from the roofs and the parking lot and to funnel it to retention structures. One structure, located west of the church along Bushnell Street will accept storm water from the west-sloping roofs of the nave and chancel. The second structure, just north of the parish house will receive storm water from the east elevation of the church, tower, and parking lot. The third, linked set of structures will receive storm water from the parish house and cloister wing roofs.

Near the end of the project, the parking lot will be reconfigured for three more parking spaces and sidewalks will be laid to provide a gracious walk from a drop-off area into the vestibule of the new addition.

The current oil-fired, hybrid, steam/forced-hot-air heating system will be replaced with a gas-fired, hybrid, hot-water/forced-hot-air system. Where there are steam radiators, they will be replaced with hot-water radiators. The existing forced-hot-air ducts beneath the church will be cleaned and retained, but the steam radiators over which air is forced to heat the church will be replaced with hot-water radiators. The offices will be supplied with air conditioning.

The plaster of the interior of the church will be repaired. The painted stone surfaces throughout the church, chapels, and tower will be stripped of their damaging paint and restored to their original reddish appearance.

The historic lighting fixtures will be rewired and restored (in this fourth lighting renovation) to their original appearance, with the removal of the unfortunate "dunce caps" that were added to them during their third renovation.

The sacristy will be completely renovated with oak cabinetry.

Finishes in Peabody Hall will be refurbished and new tables and chair supplied.

Early December 2013 Update

The massive granite blocks of the All Saints' bell tower give an appearance of agelessness and permanency. It can seem as though the church will always stand ready to receive us in the time of our spiritual need, when we baptize a child, when we take a spouse, at the time of our funeral mass, and Sunday by Sunday throughout our lives. Yet, each generation must make its contribution to maintaining and improving this great material witness to the Christian Faith. By means of a providential, anonymous gift and through the efforts and gifts of many parishioners and friends, today's generation is making its own contribution.

The parish is in the midst of renewing and improving the parish fabric and almost every aspect of the building is being addressed. The All Saints' building restoration is broken roughly into two phases, one focused on the building envelope and a second, overlapping phase focused primarily on interior work. With the favorably warm and dry autumn weather, work on the first phase is rapidly drawing to completion as the construction season also draws to a close.

The envelope of our buildings consists of a variety of roofs, a large amount of granite and brick masonry, and windows almost too numerous to count. The nave and chancel roofs have been completely reslated with all new gutters, down spouts, flashing, and snow fencing. The two aisle roofs will be reslated shortly. There will soon be four new double-lock, sheet metal roofs—flat seamed for the bell tower, narthex, and St. Stephen Chapel and standing seam for the Lady Chapel. All this work is augmented by the numerous crickets, roof ridges, wall through- and step-flashing.

Constructed of local, Quincy, seam-face granite, the entire church and connector to the parish house have been gently washed, the mortar chiseled out, new mortar laid in, and the stone washed again. Special attention has been paid to gently wash the years of pollution and grime from the Nova Scotia and Indiana limestone used for detailing at the narthex, window surrounds, and string courses. The original mortar was tested and compared to the 1892 building specifications and a historically accurate and durable match was devised as to composition, aggregate content, and color.

The expert masons laid the mortar into the joints with care to maintain a slight relief to the face of the stone. Thirty-five tons of mortar were removed from the building and 35 tons of new mortar were applied into 46 thousand linear feet of joints. The coping stones at the chancel roof and at the bell tower were taken down and remounted with stainless steel pins to anchor them more securely to the building. In addition, seismic brackets now brace the parapet walls of the bell tower.

As grand as All Saints' may appear, it was constructed on a tight budget and compromises were made in order to remain within that budget. One of these compromises was the provision of wooden tracery, instead of stone, for most of the clerestory windows in the church nave and chancel. Only three of the four figural windows in the clerestory have stone tracery. The remaining figural window and all the diamond quarry "temporary" windows have frames and tracery of wood.

This tracery is about a foot thick and is constructed in a laminar fashion with the molded profiles facing the outside and the interior crafted from old-growth white pine backed by interior blocks of the same material. One hundred thirty years and deferred maintenance left much of the tracery in dreadful repair. A conservative approach was taken to the restoration of these window frames. When possible decayed wood was replaced with like wood in dutchman repairs. When an entire member needed to be removed, it was replaced with a piece carved from Honduran mahogany to match. Six master carpenters have restored all of the window tracery.

Almost every window and sash is being replaced or restored. The stained glass, both figural and diamond quarry, in the church is being removed to a Dorchester studio to be taken apart, cleaned, and rebuilt with new lead cames. Where a piece of glass is so fragmented that it cannot be used, a master painter is fashioning a new piece and documenting its placement in the restored window. This careful restoration work is being carried out on each of the late-19th and early 20th century windows from such studios as Heinigke and Bowen, Phipps Slocum, Christopher Whall, Charles Connick, and Vaughn & O'Neill.

The parish house, constructed 15 years after the church, is being restored by addressing the same elements as the church. There is still service life left in the slate roof, so it is being selectively repaired with slates taken from the old roof of the church. The gutter, downspouts, and flashing are being completely replaced. As with the copper work at the church, the materials and profile match the original work.

A flaw in the detailing of the parish house buttresses has necessitated stripping the veneer brick and addressing deterioration of some of the roof trusses. The elaborate copper roof of the large, two-flue ventilator shaft has been completely reconstructed. Significant damage to the half-timbering of the parish house has been repaired and patches made to the adjacent stucco. About ten percent of the yellow brick of the exterior has been repointed.

Over the years, the leaded windows in much of the parish house have been replaced with single sheets of glazing. Fabricators located in Antigua, Guatemala, are crafting new glazing for all of the fixed and operable casement and double-hung sash. Where the wooden frames can be restored they are. The metal frames are being restored and reused.

Also included in phase one are improvements for accessibility and convenience. A new, two-stage, ADA-compliant ramp has been installed so that parishioners and visitors may enter through the main door of the church at Ashmont Street. The 1980s ramp into the so-called cloister hall will be demolished. The parish has long labored with inadequate toilet facilities, and this project affords us the opportunity to build toilet rooms with twice the number of fixtures as before. The new women's and men's rooms, located in place of the old nursery, are very nearly finished. The nursery has been moved to the location of the former locker room adjacent to the gymnasium.

The north prospect of the church looking west along Ashmont Street has long been defaced by aerial electrical cables crossing the street and entering a service head atop a 20-foot length of six-inch, brown painted PVC conduit. The service entrance is being relocated underground, coming from conduits in Bushnell Street to a transformer located at the corner of Lombard Street, and then underground to the undercroft north of the St. Stephen chapel.

The second phase of the building restoration is in the final stages of planning as trade-offs between cost and needed work are being evaluated. This much is certain. A significant part of phase two is the installation of an elevator and the construction of a new stair hall to replace the original one.

As anyone who has had to go from the first-floor lower hall to the second-floor Peabody Hall knows, this means entering a weird M.C. Escher-like stair hall where one has to descend a half-flight of stairs before immediately ascending a flight and a half of steps. The parish investigated the problem of the stair hall several times over the 20th century without finding a suitable solution that remained within the original footprint.

The present building project offers the opportunity to rectify the situation by going outside the existing footprint to build a small addition that will house a five-stop, two-door elevator. This addition, positioned north of the cloister, approximately twenty by seventeen feet and architecturally matching the slate, stucco, and half-timbering of the parish house, will afford a gracious new entry to the parish house and cloister. This elevator will make all of the major public areas of the church property accessible. A lift will be installed to provide access to the gymnasium.

In addition, the existing restrooms will be renovated and the existing sprinkler system in the parish house will be extended to protect the church, too. The parking lot will be reconfigured and enlarged by three percent to improve vehicular circulation and pedestrian safety, adding three parking spaces in the process. A subsurface infiltration system will be installed for on-site management of storm water from the roofs and parking lot.

The entire project is scheduled to be completed by the end of 2014.