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Stained Glass Window in Doomed Boerum Hill Church to Be Saved

A stained glass window was dedicated to John Richardson, Cooper's great-great-great grandfather, in 1916.
A stained glass window was dedicated to John Richardson, Cooper's great-great-great grandfather, in 1916.
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Church of the Redeemer/Christopher Ballard

BOERUM HILL — A stained glass window housed in the soon-to-be-demolished Episcopal Church of the Redeemer will be spared the wrecking ball thanks to the great-great-great granddaughter of one of the founders.

Jane Cooper, 65, who lives in Arizona, contacted the Rev. Christopher Ballard, the priest in charge of the doomed church site, about saving the window dedicated to her ancestor John Richardson, one of the founders of the 1866 Gothic Revival church.

The window, located in the side aisle of the church at Pacific Street and Fourth Avenue, depicts St. Martha, the brother of Lazarus. It has a panel that reads, "In loving memory of the long and faithful services of John Richardson, one of the founders of this church, his wife, Elizabeth Oakley, their daughters, Jane E., Mary B., Sophie C., and granddaughter Ella L. Richardson, 1916."

She said Ballard promised to find a safe new home for the window, along with everything else in the church.

"We thought it may take a pretty penny to recover or save the window," said Cooper, who took up genealogy after her retirement from the National Indian Gaming Commission, where she worked as a financial analyst. "But the window has been ‘saved’ by the church, which is a great relief since we felt an obligation to save the window."

The demolition of the church, which has been in a state of severe disrepair for the past several decades, is expected to happen in the next year to make way for a mixed-use building.

The Episcopal Diocese of Long Island, which owns the site, has said the new building on the site would include space for residential, commercial and religious purposes.