A Hill City company has played a key role in a multi-million restoration of Martin Luther King Jr.’s home church in Atlanta.
Lynchburg Stained Glass is working to restore more than two dozen windows in the church to the way they were in the 1960s, when King served as co-pastor with this father, the Rev. Martin Luther “Daddy” King Sr.
Mark Speake, whose family owns the Lynchburg studio, said the company was consulted on the initial work to figure out just how much renovation the windows would need.
“We were in on the planning part of the job. We helped write the specs on it, to bring the windows back to where they should be,” he said.
The window restoration is part of a larger undertaking by the National Park Service to restore the 88-year-old church as a historical site. The $4.4 million project is targeted for completion in 2010.
Speake said his company just completed its part last week, after about 1½ years of work. He’s excited for the efforts to be on display when the church reopens.
“We’ll be pretty proud that we were able to take part in (the restoration),” he said.
The younger King served at the church as co-pastor with his father from 1960 until his death in 1968.
King’s funeral was also held in the church.
Speake explained that restoring the windows involved the lead that holds the glass pieces together.
“Over the years, the windows had been worked on by other people,” he said, noting that some of the repairs were suitable, while others weren’t done well.
“They were leaking water,” he said.
“(People) tried to stop the leaks by putting clear plastic over the outside, and that just turned all hazy-looking,” he said.
Melanie Kirkpatrick, an associate with the company, said that in addition to the 29 large stained glass windows in the church’s sanctuary, the company also agreed to restore smaller windows in the basement.
“This isn’t our first of that magnitude,” she said, but added “maybe the first of this historical significance.”
Speake agreed, calling the scope of the project “average,” and said the amount of work was nothing unusual for the company.
“We reinstalled them back in the church as they were back in the ’60s, without the covering on the outside, so you can see them,” he said.
But the history, he said, is what makes the project important.
“That’s a big feather in our cap,” he said.
“That is just a big part of history … our little part of working on the windows is pretty minute, but it still makes you feel pretty good that you got selected to do that.”
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