Watkins Museum of History celebrates completed restoration of stained glass windows

The Watkins Museum of History’s successful stained glass window restoration project represents a community-funded effort to maintain a local historical landmark.

The Watkins announced Wednesday that restoration on the three windows at the downtown building has been completed. These windows are original to the 1888 building, which first opened to the public as a museum in 1975.

“Some efforts to add additional protection, both on the inside and on the outside, were made probably when the Watkins building was renovated 50 years ago to become the Watkins Museum,” said Steve Novak, the museum’s executive director. He believes no other work was done to the approximately 130-year-old structures.

“Stained glass deteriorates over time just because glass is heavy and lead is soft and, you know, they sag a little bit,” he said. The windows were also dirty and had cracked panels.

To fund a restoration project, the museum hosted History in a New Light: Douglas County Historical Society 90th Anniversary Fundraiser at Juniper Hill Farms in October 2023. The evening included food, music by Mire Pral, and a talk by Dennis Domer, editor of the Embattled Lawrence anthology project. Proceeds from the $75 event tickets amounted to more than $26,000.

Thanks to these funds, the museum was able to start restoration progress in 2024. Watkins Business Manager John Jewell had solicited bids from firms with aligned restoration specialties and selected Hoefer’s Custom Stained Glass for the job.

The restoration process itself was painstaking. Scott Hoefer addressed one window at a time, deinstalling and transporting it back to his studio in South Hutchinson, before reinstalling and collecting the next one.

“The work involved making a diagram of the design of the windows and them completely disassembling them, taking all of the glass pieces out of the lead, cleaning all of the glass pieces, and reassembling them, according to that design diagram that he made with brand new lead, and then reinforcing them with rods, which is typical for stained glass,” Novak said. He estimates that each window has hundreds of individual pieces of glass, all about 2 square inches in size.

Hoefer also installed clear glass protective storm windows on the exterior, an improvement over the previous plexiglass, which had deteriorated and looked cloudy. The clear glass windows now provide passersby with a brighter view of the stained glass, while allowing more light to enter the interior of the building.

The museum is happy with the results — according to Novak, Hoefer “did absolutely beautiful work.”

Looking forward, the Watkins team hopes the Lawrence community will maintain its passion for building upkeep efforts. Last summer, the Oak Hill Cemetery Committee volunteered their time and efforts to clean the main arch over the front door of the Watkins with Prosoco products that are also used to clean headstones.

“‘Watkins’ is carved in there, (and) had become kind of unreadable with dirt and pollution and all sorts of different kinds of things that had really turned the stone black,” Novak said. “It (Prosoco products) cleans some of that biological dirt off right away and you see a difference, but it seeps into the pores of the stone and continues to clean it. So over time, that archway is becoming clearer and clearer and cleaner and whiter.”

Novak says the next need is for all of the external brick and stone trim to be cleaned and tuckpointed.

Readers can visit the Watkins Museum and see the restored stained glass during operating hours from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m., Tuesdays through Saturdays. The museum is free to all patrons.

Wulfe Wulfemeyer (they/them), reporter and news editor, has worked with The Lawrence Times since May 2025. They can be reached at wulfe@lawrencekstimes.com.

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