The audience that packed the auditorium at Emma Willard School last Thursday learned that Troy was the "Motherload of Tiffany."

Harold W. (Bill) Cummings of Cummings Studios in North Adams, Massachusetts, was referring to the many Tiffany windows remaining in this city. Cummings, and window conservator extraordinaire Diane Rousseau, presented an illustrated talk on the recently completed two year restoration of Tiffany windows located in St. John's Episcopal Church on First and Liberty Streets. The talk was sponsored by the Rensselaer County Historical Society.

Tiffany windows are world famous for their quality and depiction of religious, historic and pastoral themes, and Troy has several surviving pieces scattered throughout the city. In addition to St. John's, you can find Tiffany windows at St. Paul's Episcopal, First Presbyterian Church (Bush Memorial Center), St. Joseph's Catholic, the Episcopal Church of the Holy Cross, the Gardner Earl Memorial Crematory and Chapel, Kemp Mausoleum (Oakwood Cemetery), Troy Public Library, and the First Presbyterian Church of Lansingburgh.

It has been written that St. Joseph's has the largest assemblage of Tiffany windows of any church in America, but the recently restored set of windows at St. John's is the only set of Lancet (tall and narrow and set in a lancet arch) windows Tiffany ever produced. The multi paneled scene depicts, "St. John's Vision of the Holy City." Tiffany artist Agnes Northrop designed this masterpiece. She joined Tiffany in 1884, when she was 27 years old.

However, time has not been kind to the windows. The elements and previous restoration work have taken their toll. Rousseau and her team painstakingly restored the windows, and if you were privileged to have seen her slide show learned the task was monumental. There are over 8000 individual pieces of glass in this window set: glass that's spun, crackled, warped, bent, pressed into molds, and faceted into jewels.

Tiffany windows are built in layers which provides incredible depth and dimension, she said. She explained that the Holy City window is a three-layer window, with individual areas of emphasis that are four and five layers deep and up to ten surfaces. The Holy City itself is made of thousands of tiny pieces, with large white plates on the interior that appear as if it's receding behind clouds. "The intent is to dazzle the viewer, to make the Holy city happen as literally as the materials would allow," according to Ms. Rousseau.

Viewing a Tiffany window is like enjoying a great symphony. When you sit back and listen you absorb the combined effect of thousands of notes playing off each other and experience the emotion of the totality of the piece. Likewise, when you sit back and stare at a Tiffany window, you are absorbing the combined effect of reflected light on thousands of pieces of colored glass evoking a visually emotional response.

Louis Comfort Tiffany (1848-1933) was the son of Charles Lewis Tiffany, founder of Tiffany & Co. The remarkable 57 year career of Lewis C. included designing jewelry and lamps, as well as windows and decorative glass, and even received a patent for his opalescent window glass in 1881. His work was not only commissioned for churches but also by the likes of Mark Twain and Cornelius Vanderbilt.

Today, Tiffany creations sell for large sums. A round of applause must be offered to the custodians of St. John's for restoring the windows for all Trojans to enjoy, rather than offer them up to an auction house. The windows are estimated to be worth several million dollars.

What also strikes me as remarkable is the existence of companies like W.H. Cummings Studios that have assembled the kind of talent needed to restore such works of art with not just the technical expertise, but also love and care that is clearly exhibited in their work. They strive to leave as little of their mark in the restoration, so that the work of the original artist becomes center stage once again.

These Tiffany jewels that dot the Troy landscape are just another reminder of the city's rich history. The restoration of "St. John's Vision of the Holy City" is another example of what I like to call the "heritage renewal" going on in Troy. The Hudson Mohawk Industrial Gateway will be presenting St. John's their annual preservation award for the restoration work later this year.

It may take one project at a time, but in the not so distant future Troy will replace "Collar City" with the new title of "Renaissance City."