Featured Windows, March 2007

St. Paul's Episcopal Church Marquette, MI

Building: St. Paul's Episcopal Church

City: Marquette

State: Michigan

The Advent-Nativity Window (Douglass Houghton Memorial Window, detail). St. Paul's Episcopal Church, Marquette, MI. Clayton & Bell, London, England, 1887.

St. Paul's Episcopal Church traces its beginning to worship services held in the early 1850s aboard the steamships Napoleon and Planet that were anchored in Marquette's harbor on the shore of Lake Superior. After incorporating as a parish in 1856, the congregation built a wooden church in 1857 and replaced it in 1874-1875 with the present brown Marquette sandstone building, designed in the Gothic Revival style by noted Detroit architect Gordon W. Lloyd. The attached Morgan Memorial Chapel was commissioned by Marquette businessman Peter White in memory of his son, Morgan Lewis White, who died in 1878 at the age of 12. Designed by Cobb and Frost of Chicago, the chapel was constructed in 1887-1889. A new entrance, designed by Marquette architect Paul Bilgen, was added to the church in the late 1980s. The church celebrated its Sesquicentennial in August of 2006 on the harbor shore near the place where services were first held.

The stained glass windows of St. Paul's Episcopal Church were created by several studios at various times. The Advent-Nativity Window, made by Clayton & Bell of London (fig. 1), was given in 1887 by A. Lanfear Norrie of Boston, MA, in memory of Michigan's first state geologist, Dr. Douglass Houghton, who drowned in a storm on Lake Superior in 1845 at the age of 36. Mr. Norrie had been in the Upper Peninsula exploring its rich mineral and forest resources and had learned of Houghton's important geological research. When his offer of a memorial window to the church as a Christmas gift was accepted, he immediately ordered it from Clayton & Bell. The Advent-Nativity window depicts five biblical scenes associated with the birth of Christ.

The Christian Family Window (Juliet Graveraet Kaufman Memorial Window), St. Paul's Episcopal Church, Marquette, MI. Charles J. Connick Associates, Boston, MA, 1922.

The Christian Family Window (Juliet Graveraet Kaufman Memorial Window), given by Louis G. Kaufman in memory of his mother, depicts Christ blessing little children, who represent Samuel and Juliet Kaufman's eleven children. A Nativity scene with the Holy Family fills the medallion in the upper part of the window. Created by Charles J. Connick Associates of Boston, the Kaufman Memorial Window was dedicated on October 22, 1922. The Connick studio provided other nave windows for the church in 1921 and a rose window that was dedicated in 1952.

The Resurrection Window, St. Paul's Episcopal Church, Marquette, MI. Tiffany Glass Company, New York, NY, ca. 1887.

A five-lancet Resurrection Window, symbolizing the resurrection of Christ, fills the west wall of the Morgan Memorial Chapel (left). The central lancet holds an empty cross, surrounded by a vine laden with grapes, representing Christ and his Church (right). Overhead is a descending dove, symbol of the Holy Spirit, at the center of a rose divided into twelve sections to denote the twelve Disciples of Christ. Given by Peter White in memory of his son Morgan, the Resurrection Window was created ca. 1887 by the Tiffany Glass Company of New York. It was restored in the 1990s by Shadetree Studios of Petoskey, MI, together with the 1952 rose window made by the Connick firm. In January of 2007, the Marquette County Historical Society presented the church with its Peter White Award, given annually in recognition of efforts to preserve the community's heritage.

The Spiritual Gift of Hope Window. St. Paul's Episcopal Church, Marquette, MI. T. C. Esser Company, Milwaukee, WI, 1968.

The side walls of the Morgan Memorial Chapel hold ten windows created in 1968 by the T. C. Esser Company of Milwaukee, WI. They represent major milestones in the Christian's journey through life and the spiritual gifts of faith, hope and charity.

St. Paul's Episcopal Church was registered in the Michigan Stained Glass Census by Patricia A. Vacilek of Negaunee, MI.

Bibliography: Show Bibliography

Eckert, Kathryn Bishop. Buildings of Michigan. New York: Oxford University Press, 1993.

Kohrt, Kristin. "Preserving history: St. Paul's Church honored for restoring windows." The Mining Journal (Marquette, MI). 3 February, 2007.

Merk, George P. "The Legacy of Peter White." Michigan History Magazine (May/June 1999): 46-53.

"St. Paul's Episcopal Parish Here Observes its 100th Anniversary." The Mining Journal (Marquette, MI). 3 September, 1955.

St. Paul's Episcopal Church, Marquette, MI. "Historical Tour: St. Paul's Church in the City of Marquette, Michigan." (Tour guide, 1994)

St. Paul's Episcopal Church, Marquette, MI. The Messenger (Church newsletter) August 2006.

(MSGC 1993.0166)

Text by Betty MacDowell, Michigan Stained Glass Census, March , 2007.