West Point Cadet Chapel, New York

Upon entering the Cadet Chapel, one feels immediately the coldness inherent in this typical Gothic Cathedral; but more overpowering is the warmth emanating from the blaze of color that the magnificent Willet Studio stained glass windows provide.

These historic treasures celebrate the theme of martial Christianity. The mesmerizing sanctuary window depicts Old Testament battles and ready soldier-martyrs. In the Apocalypse Window, memorializing graduates who fell in World War I, Christ and his followers storm forth into righteous battle against the four horsemen, Famine, Conquest, War and Death.

A newly restored and recamed (releaded) lower side isle window with new bronze frames.

Emblazoned beneath is the West Point motto: duty, honor, country.

Here and there, amid the embattled Christian heroes and warlike prophets is a painted face so benign or hands so sensitive that the observer, rather the participant, is reminded that the history of the Academy is more than righteous military campaigns or devotion to abstractions like duty, honor and country. It is also a history of individuals intimate with God and deeply devoted to their fellow man. Nowhere is this more evident than in the class windows in the nave, clerestory,and transepts. These intricate colored windows, representing each graduating class from 1802 to 1976, are a rich tribute to the history of individuals who have passed through the Academy.

Inevitably, the process of history has brought with it deterioration of the stained glass and stone. For almost a century, the windows and stone had suffered the injuries of time. Old perimeter sealant had contracted, expanded and hardened, with the ruthless Hudson valley freeze-thaw cycles, exerting enough pressure to fracture seraphs’ wings and shatter prophets’ jaws. The came or channeled lead which held the glass, had corroded and thinned because of the accumulation of years of acid air pollution, and had become brittle and broken, especially at the stress points. Some of the panels had begun to sag from their frames or to bulge. The grouting compound, which held the intricate pieces of glass into the lead channel, had hardened, cracked and fallen out. Even more recently fabricated panels had caked-on filth. In some places, the painted emulsion was flaking off, and the faces and hands had begun to fade.

The restoration process itself is fascinating.

In this case, the craftsmen first erected uniquely designed 75 ft. scaffold towers spanning the buttresses between the clerestory windows, then enclosing the towers so that they could work in any weather. Perched high above the walkway beneath, they cut away the hardened urethane perimeter sealants from the stone joint on the outside and removed one whole window. Their extensive experience with cutting stone enabled them to extract the fragile leaded panels from their tenacious mortar and stone settings without causing the thin painted glass to shatter. The craftsmen encased the panels in specially designed crates and transported them to Preservation Trades Company for restoration.

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