Hoosick Grange News

Hoosick Grange met on June 24. It was an open meeting and the community was invited. Elsie and Mary Marpe were in charge of the program. Elsie introduced Mr. Ned Pratt. Mr. Pratt is from Albany. He was a professor at Russell Sage College. She told us he had many interests, like architecture, stained glass windows, photography and old barns. Mr. Pratt told us his special interest was in Tiffany stained glass windows in churches and other buildings. He told us about Lewis Comfort Tiffany, a master of stained glass. He studied historic churches, one of the earliest glass windows in Rome, prior to 79 AD, and in British Museums and also in Germany. Mr. Pratt told us how stained glass is made from sand and then the glass is held together with cames of lead. Many of the beautiful slides he had were scenes from the life of Moses, lots of angels and the life of Christ. During the 18th and 19th century, stained glass declined. They painted on glass. Tiffany painted with new types of techniques and used drapery glass. He always painted hands, faces and feet by hand, and the faces were all different He redecorated the White House and did St Paul’s Church in Troy. He had 100 people working on windows and 100 working on lamps. He used the left over glass pieces for the lamps. St. John’s Episcopal Church in Troy has a beautiful window of Christ blessing little children. Many churches liked that window, but when Tiffany did them he always did them different and the faces were always different.
Mr. Pratt had slides of Russell Sage College windows, which used to be a First Presbyterian Church, Valley Falls United Methodist Church, First Presbyterian, Troy Calvary, First Baptist Church, Hoosick Falls, Church of Immaculate Conception, St. George in Pittstown, All Saints Episcopal in Hoosick, West Hoosick Baptist, St. Mark’s Episcopal in Hoosick Falls and the Eagle Bridge Church built in 1870-1880 with windows that were given by railroad and postal workers. One of the windows has a train engine in it. Mr. Pratt was very interesting. He answered many questions we had. Elsie thanked him for such an interesting program.
Our next meeting is on July 8. It is Dairy Princess night. David Schmidt is in charge of the program. The refreshment committee is Mary and Elsie Marpe and Louise Slingerland. Don’t forget the Rensselaer County Pomona picnic on July 12.