Syracuse, NY -- Stained glass artist Scott Brennan has restored or created windows for hundreds of churches over the last 35 years. He’ll soon turn one of Syracuse’s oldest churches and its first Catholic cathedral into the new home for his studio. Brennan, owner of Brennan Stained Glass Studio, has agreed to rent, with an option to buy, the...
View full sizeScott Brennan is moving his company, Brennan Stained Glass Studio, into the former St. John the Evangelist Church. Syracuse, NY -- Stained glass artist Scott Brennan has restored or created windows for hundreds of churches over the last 35 years. He’ll soon turn one of Syracuse’s oldest churches and its first Catholic cathedral into the new home for his studio.
Brennan, owner of Brennan Stained Glass Studio, has agreed to rent, with an option to buy, the recently vacated St. John the Evangelist Church at 215 N. State St. from the Roman Catholic Diocese.
“It’s a great showroom for what we do,” said Brennan, who started the studio with his father in 1975.
The diocese closed the beautiful 157-year-old church June 30, part of a series of church closings tied to a need to reduce costs, a lack of priests and nuns, and shrinking memberships.
Built in 1853, the church served as the city’s first cathedral, a designation that was transferred in 1904 to a newer downtown church then called St. Mary’s Church and now named Cathedral of the Immaculate Conception.
St. John the Evangelist will not sit empty for long. Brennan said he plans to move his studio and retail shop from leased quarters in the former Dave Ball Chevrolet dealership on West Genesee Street in March. He and diocese officials announced the deal at the church today.
Though best known for the 28-foot-wide stained glass dome his studio made for Alexandria Bay’s famed Boldt Castle, most of Brennan’s work has been with churches, including many Catholic ones.
Much of the work consists of painstakingly dismantling, cleaning and repainting windows more than 100 years old. When windows are so badly damaged they cannot be saved, Brennan and his staff make exact replicas, going to great lengths to buy or make glass that precisely matches the original’s colors and texture.
“The people we work for are people who love art and high quality,” Brennan said. “We are a firm that prides ourselves on our quality.”
His work does not come cheap. The cost to restore a stained glass window can run up to $1,000 a foot — or about $50,000 for the tall windows that typically stretch nearly to a church’s ceiling. Most of the cost is for the many hours of labor.
For Brennan, St. John the Evangelist is the perfect setting for his studio. The church has several dozen tall stained glass windows, typical of windows restored by him and his seven full-time artisans, including his son and daughter.
“I work in churches all the time,” he said. “For other people to be able to come in and feel the warmth and feelings that this building has, I don’t think you can recreate that.”
Brennan, 55, plans to remove about half of the church’s wooden pews to create eight individual work stations, or studios, where he and his staff can demonstrate their skills and teach classes on making stained glass windows and jewelry. Such classes make up about 30 percent of his studio’s business, and he expects to see that increase to 50 percent with the added exposure from its new home.
He will not be making any changes to the church’s marble altar, built in 1891. But he will use it to display examples of his work and possibly the works of other glass artists.
The church’s basement will be where Brennan and his employees restore windows and create new ones. Restoration work remains the biggest part of the studio’s business.
Brennan said he first got the idea of moving into an empty church 20 years ago when his business was housed in the former Easy Washing Machine factory near Franklin Square. But he wanted one that was in good condition and close to downtown Syracuse.
Eight years ago, he put in a bid to buy St. John’s rectory across North State Street, but the diocese sold it instead to a law firm. When he heard early this year about plans to close the church, he quickly began negotiating to lease it, with a goal of buying it within three years.
Unlike many closed churches, St. John the Evangelist is in excellent shape. Some of its stained glass windows could use restoration, but Brennan knows someone who will do it for free.
Heating the church, with its high ceilings, will be expensive. But Brennan said he has a plan to use the residual heat from a kiln for making glass.
Monsignor Neal Quartier, rector of the Cathedral of the Immaculate Conception and former rector of St. John, said it may be the only time that a former church in the diocese has been re-used for something other than worship services.
“This is maybe the first one that’s going to be used for something different, though it’s certainly extremely appropriate,” he said.
The church received help in arranging the lease from Innovative Resources Group, a Saratoga Springs consulting firm that advises nonprofit organizations on fundraising and real estate. The same company is helping the diocese with its Cathedral Square Neighborhood Project, an initiative to find new uses for the underused and vacant buildings around the cathedral.
Contact Rick Moriarty at rmoriarty@syracuse.com or (315) 470-3148.