Medieval churches began telling stories about the Bible in the form of stained-glass windows. The stained-glass windows at Hinton’s First Presbyterian Church will have their own story to tell. An extensive restoration began this week with the removal of historic windows facing Ballengee Street and the view heading up 3rd Avenue. The story of the church is rich, dating back to 1873 when it began with just six people. Hinton was just a small village then.
The first building used for worship was also used as a courthouse and later as a schoolhouse. The Presbyterian community would move from building to building, enduring financial struggle during the Great Depression and a couple of fires. With every move the membership grew. According to church documents “membership grew to 230 members and a new church building became a necessity.”
The present building for the First Presbyterian Church is now 100 years old. Ann Meador Wells and Linda Seldomridge share that the “plans were approved in 1916 to build a new building. Prior to this the congregation had built a church on Temple Street, followed by a move to the chapel on 13th Avenue, holding services at the county jail and Sunday school in a schoolhouse in Brooklyn, just across the New River Bridge. By 1922 the new building at 3rd Avenue and Ballengee Street was complete, suffered a couple of fires over the years from hot embers from fireplaces, and underwent other repairs and renovations. By 1922 the new church building was complete and adorned with magnificent stained-glass windows purchased by families in memory of loved ones, including a window in memory of a Gold Star veteran.”
The church is aging and with it comes renovations and repairs, Meador Wells said, “We are now taking on a very costly project — our windows.”
For the past week, on scaffolding and with great care, a stained-glass restoration company from North Carolina, has been removing the major windows along the sides of the church. According to Steve Cox, “We will crate and secure each window, transport the glass to our studio in Statesville, and work will begin by artists to remove existing support braces, blueprint each one, remove all existing lead came, clean each individual piece of stained-glass, replace all damaged pieces with the same color and finish (including any hand painting to match existing stained glass), re-fabricate the windows with new lead came, seal and waterproof each window, and furnish and install the windows in their original locations.”
This project is Phase One of a $500,000 undertaking. It includes transport back to the church, installation, reglazing, addition of new protective covering, caulking and, not least of which is the installation of a custom ventilation system to eliminate heat buildup between the stained-glass windows and the protective coverings.”
Phase One is expected to take around six weeks. This phase involves 11 windows, Phase Two involves 13 windows and the final, Phase Three, will wrap up the remaining five windows, for a grand total of 29 safe, restored, colorful and symbolic illustrations of spiritual significance.
The First Presbyterian Church in Hinton is a hub for many community activities and services said Teri Giles, “With outreach programs, food bank, community lunches, Yummy Bags, and other social programs in addition to offering college scholarships. These new windows are going to please our grandmothers and great grandmothers we see as saints and guides in our Church.
