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Our Lady of Grace, Dearborn Heights, Michigan

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MSGC : Collections : Window

Window

Building Name: St. John's Episcopal Church

Studio Name: Lamb (J. and R.) Co.

City: Detroit

Window Shape: 5 (gothic arched, 2 vertical sections)

Date of Window: 1953

Subject/Title of Window: Annunciation

Brief Description of Subject: The grisaille glass in the upper part of the window is original to the window, and at one time, extended to the bottom. In their book "Detroit's Historic Places of Worship", Collum, Krueger, and Kostuch thought the maker was likely Friedrichs and Staffin (Detroit Stained Glass Works). In the canopy, the roundel features a design of stylized flowers.

The original grisaille glass in the lower portion of this window was replaced in 1953 by the scene of the Annunciation.

Description from "A Guide to St. John's Episcopal Church" by Charles E. Griner:

"Here we see the angel Gabriel, sent by God, revealing to the kneeling and fearful Mary, 'Hail, thou art highly favored, the Lord is with thee: blessed art thou among women' {Luke 1:28 KJV}. This is one of the great mysteries of our faith wherein the Holy Spirit, symbolized (by the dove) in the shaft of light, should come to Mary and she should bring forth a son to be called Jesus, the Son of the Highest. The angel holds the palm leaves signifying the heavenly reward, The fleur-de-lis, symbol of the Virgin Mary, is in the left panel and a monogram of the name "Maria" in the right panel."

Also seen in the picture are white lilies, a symbol of purity. White lilies, because of their association with the Virgin Mary, are known as "Annunciation Lilies" or "Madonna Lilies." Laurel leaves can also be seen above both Gabriel and Mary. Laurel leaves symbolize "chastity" from their association with the Vestal Virgins.

The maker's name can be seen above the "AL" of Coggeshal as "J. & R. Lamb Studios."

Inscriptions: Hail, thou art highly favored, the Lord is with thee
In grateful memory of the Hutchings Family
The gift of Sarah Coggeshal Hutchings


Condition of Window: good

Height: ~18'

Width: 4'

The MSGC is a constantly evolving database. Not all the data that has been collected by volunteers has been sorted and entered. Not every building has been completely documented.

All images in the Index are either born-digital photographs of windows or buildings or are scans of slides, prints, or other published sources. These images have been provided by volunteers and the quality of the material varies widely.

If you have any questions, additions or corrections, or think you can provide better images and are willing to share them, please contact donald20@msu.edu