The John the Baptist window is located in the Narthex at St. Mark.
The window was given in memory of John T. and Lu Corbett Handy.
The Moses window was designed by Cummings Studio, San Francisco and cost $2,885.
The original schematic for the stained glass in the main church was designed in 1958 by Canon West and mapped out by Cummings Glass. Although some of the iconography design was followed, there were also some changes.
For example, the St. Nicholas Chapel (also referred to back in the day as the “Children’s Chapel) on the Epistle side of the church was originally meant to have four windows representing Old Testament prophets – Isaiah, Jeremiah, Ezekiel and Daniel. This was changed at some point soon after construction of the main sanctuary, probably as a result of the gift of the St. Nicholas painting by the Febinger/Marrack family. Once it became the children’s or St. Nicholas Chapel, it’s likely that a decision was made to have more of a nativity theme for these windows. Installed in 1960 and ’61, these windows depict instead the Baptism of St. Nicholas, The Boy Samuel, The Boy Moses and The Nativity (FYI, the only women at St. Mark’s that features a woman – Mary).
One of the three lancet windows was also set to be something different than it was until a last minute “audible” by then Rector Len Whittlinger. The 1958 iconography listed the three lancet windows as:
St. Stephen – Christ the King – St. Paul
The Christ the King and St. Paul lancets were installed in 1965. The cartoon for these windows does not show the third lancet window – the one meant to be St. Stephen.
In August of 1966, Rev. Whittlinger sent Cummings Glass a letter:
“As you know you have done a great deal of glass work in St. Mark’s Church, and we are now interested in receiving a statement of what the one remaining lancet in the Great West Window would cost. I am interested in having it contain the figure of St. John the Baptist since the central window is of Christ the King and the other lancet of St. Paul the Apostle.” (St. Mark’s Archives)
The letter does not explain the rationale or theology he used to make this decision, although it does make sense. Unfortunately, we also do not have a copy of the cartoon used for this window. It waswas dedicated on Sunday, December 18th, 1966 in loving memory of John and Lu Handy (more on the Handy’s in Part 2). Rev. Whittlinger also used this event to kick off the campaign for the final five windows needed to complete all of the stained glass in the main sanctuary. This also reveals another iconography change. The five remaining windows were planned to be John Wycliffe, St. Augustine, St. Gregory, St. Philip and St. Bartholomew. The Iconography map has a pencilled note from Rev. Whittlinger dated 9/4/68, though, indicating that Archbishop Thomas Cranmer would replace John Wycliffe.
Interestingly, another cartoon shows designs for three windows for the “chapel” that depict a young John the Baptist, Samuel and Moses. The cartoons closely resemble the final Moses and Samuel windows, but the lancet window shows John the Baptist as a man, and looking towards Christ the King.
The John the Baptist window is particularly stunning in the afternoon and late in the day when the sun comes into the rear of the church and reflects some very magical light into the sanctuary. It’s another window that a lot of people never notice – climb up into the choir loft when you have a chance and take a closer look.
