St. John's Tiffany Windows

Astonishment is the reaction of most people when they walk for the first time into St. John's Episcopal Church in Franklin, especially if it is a sunny day. St. John's is home to a glorious collection of 30 Tiffany stained glass windows.

The magnificent rose window (pictured below middle), located at the east end of the nave, is of favrile glass, a specialty of the American artist and decorative designer Louis Comfort Tiffany (1848-1933). It is reputedly
one of the finest quality colored glass windows in the world. Its iridescent colors flame and pale as sunlight moves across them.

Each side of the nave has four sets of three lancet windows. Each triptych has a different theme, executed in the romantic art nouveau style of the early 1900s and typical of Tiffany Studios. One set of three panels, for example, is a pastoral depiction, "St. Agnes and the Landscape." Another, the Resurrection Window, is suffused with the glow of sunrise.

The Risen Christ appears in the center panel of five, across the wall of the vaulted sanctuary; the four Gospel evangelists occupy the other four. This set of windows and the rose window were installed shortly after the church was rebuilt in 1901 after a fire. The triptyches date from 1907-1917. All are memorials.

At the west end of the nave, on each side of the sanctuary crossing, Biblical scenes are carried out in ceramic mosaic, aglitter with fragments of 24-carat gold under glass. The mosaics were the work of Gorham Studios, New York, and were fabricated in the church.

The floor of the Gothic-style building is of Italian marble. The simple altar is of French Caen stone. The brass pulpit, eagle lectern and canopied bishop's chair are also treasures of which St. John's - and Franklin- are very proud.


	St. John's Episcopal Church 1141 Buffalo Street, Franklin, PA 16323 To arrange tours, please phone the church office between 9 AM and Noon on weekdays at 814/ 432-5161. Donation: $4 per person. Groups of 30 or more: $3.00 per person