Morrison church’s stained-glass windows repaired

MORRISON – Morrison’s Presbyterian church has completed upgrades to repair the coverings of its stained-glass windows.

In 2015, the Presbyterian church replaced the old fiberglass protection of its stained-glass windows with a black metal covering. Recently, pieces of that metal began falling off and weakening the structure of the cover, leading to workers from Bovard Studios in Fairview, Iowa, to begin replacing the window covers.

The Rev. Mike Selburg said the church building’s history ties throughout the history of the town. The Presbyterian church first was incorporated in 1858. According to local legend, both the church and Morrison itself came to life out of a feud between the railroads.

In the 1800s, the majority of people settled in Unionville. The land that would become Morrison was seen as less than ideal for settlement, but when the railroads began to build into Unionville, the town insisted on charging the rail lines more to cross. In response, the railroads elected to circle around the town and that led both the church and people into a settlement that became Morrison.

The Presbyterian church building, Selburg said, is “like England – built upon the old.”

The building has gone through major structural changes since its construction. At one point in its history, the church had a tower associated with it, and incremental expansions have been made throughout the years. The last of the major construction pieces occurred in the 1960s. Around the late 1960s, construction on an education room began to match the baby boomer population surge, although officials failed to realize that the boom was temporary.

In recent history, money from a donor led to the purchase of the property next to the church that is used by its popular produce table. The Share Table was started in 2017 as a way to distribute vegetables and other food items to the community.

Selburg said it has served as a sort of “social experiment” to show the giving nature of people. The produce table now is a popular destination and the construction of a gazebo covering has been started.

The stained-glass windows have an interesting history. Fiberglass was put over the windows when, according to Selburg’s archives, someone threw a brick through the windows. The material, however, began to turn the windows yellow, and since the windows had no ventilation, the stained glass began to degrade.

Sometime around 2015, churchgoers began construction on new protections for the windows that wouldn’t inhibit the view of the stained glass. The outside coverings were sourced from Bovard Studios. When the metal coverings around the window protections began to come loose, Bovard Studios chose to stand by its work and began repairs despite the warranty having expired.

Selburg first approached Bovard Studios in order to promote local business construction.

There have been talks about adding LED lights for the stained-glass windows to highlight one of Morrison’s landmarks.