Emil Frei Studios Part II

One of the reasons we were interested in taking this tour of Emil Frei Studio stained glass windows is because our church St. Mark has an Emil Frei window which we love. It is so spectacular, that brides are discouraged from over-decorating for a wedding because the window has such a presence.

Whereas our morning was spent viewing Munich-style painted glass (above) done around the turn of the century, the afternoon featured medieval-style glass done later in the 20th Century. The medieval-style uses each piece of glass to "paint a picture" with some etching, not painting, for details.
The church above is St. Mark's Episcopal in St. Louis Hills--very Art Deco for a "Gingerbread House" neighborhood!
The walk to the church consisted of paving stones from the St. Louis riverfront when the Arch went in.
The architects were Dunn and Nagel. One of the windows (above) depicts Dunn pounding on a giant nail---Nagel is the German word for "nail" so it's a bit of a joke.
Although many churches have Old Testament windows on one side and New Testament on the other, this church has windows depicting the life of Christ as told by St. Mark on one side and secular windows of the period on the other side showing Christ's presence in modern times.

The Bibical windows were on the left. . .

Of course, one featured St. Mark with the lion at his feet.
But, the secular windows were very interesting---the one above depicts several struggles: racial and labor struggles are featured.The one above depicts "Money is the Root of all Evil", I think.
This church reminded me of some Frank Lloyd Wright homes in which everything was a work of art and was designed specifically for that building. Even the light fixtures were designed for just that church.

When they replaced the organ, the pipes were designed to match the building including the red dots that are present above each window also.


The window above depicts the "Holy Innocents" which was the name of the first church in that area of St. Louis. Holy Innocents closed its doors in 1935, but this new church was built on money and with members of that church. Although all of the windows were done in shades of blue, green, purple and grey, this window had the only red seen in a window. To me, this was the most interesting church. Even a small addition built for handicap accessibility was beautiful---all glass and modern which matched the architecture of the building.



The next church was Hope United Church of Christ which was the favorite of many on the tour. The windows above and below depict each day of Creation.
The window above shows the birds of the air and fish in the sea and then the creation of man.

All of the windows had a background of greys and blues (a cloudy day made them darker)

Going from right to left: Moses staff and serpent, burning bush, trumpets, milk and honey. Our third church was St. Gabriel the Archangel which we couldn't really get a tour of since people were inside praying.
We were able to sneak in and take a few photos. Three banks of windows around the walls looked like the one above.

But, another grouping of windows was very high by the ceiling. I thought they were very unusual and beautiful.

I got up close to one. The black shading was really etched--not painted. Many of us who went would love to go again---hopefully we could see them with some sunshine!
But, I still like the Emil Frei Studios window we have at our church St. Mark Presbyterian.