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Treasure, uncovered

Written by Lisa Britton July 28, 2010 06:56 am

Vince Woods discovers six stained glass windows inside the Baker County Courthouse

Vince Woods uncovered a surprise in the Baker County Courthouse: six stained glass windows. (Baker City Herald/Kathy Orr)

Vince Woods just needed to discover what lay beneath the dirt of six windows — three hidden above a lowered ceiling — in the Baker County Courthouse.

“Totally black — no color,” said Woods, who is head of the facilities department.

It took lots of scrubbing and lots of window cleaner, but he and summer employee BJ Savage finally uncovered the surprise: six stained glass windows original to the Courthouse, which was built in 1909.

“It took four hours per window just to pull off the old glazing and clean them,” Woods said. “Every night my hands were jet black.”

And each window was convex — bowed out from age.

Woods laid each on a counter until gravity brought them back to a level plane.

“They were almost lost,” he said. “We would have lost history forever. You cannot replace 100-year-old glass.”

The lead is also cracked in a few places, but Irv and Susan Townsend, who work with stained glass, told Woods not to worry about trying to fix it because modern lead will not adhere to the kind from the early 1900s.

Woods said he was a bit nervous to work on the antique windows.

“I don’t think I’ll ever do this again — I gained about a hundred new gray hairs,” he said.

During this project, the Courthouse was getting 52 new energy-efficient vinyl windows installed, so Woods had the stained glass windows secured in the courtroom. They fit perfectly right above the large, vertical windows that face Fourth Street.

“Just like they were made for it,” Woods said. “I’ve really enjoyed taking the time and have them put back in place to be visual to the public. They just need to be seen.”

Woods started his county job a year and a half ago after 16 years with the City of Pendleton.

He has lots of projects in mind around the Courthouse — the next one is the fountain, which is being cleaned and touched up (that’s why it’s missing from the Courthouse lawn).

“I would like to see a real photo to see what color it really was,” he said. “Everything was painted silver.”

His long-term goal is to have a gazebo grace the lawn.

“My big dream — since we have weddings here — is to build a gazebo on the Courthouse lawn,” he said.