PULLMAN — When progress moves at a glacial pace, sometimes all you can do is celebrate the little things.
Anyone who has kept up with the stop-and-go efforts to restore the Hotel Florence — the 134-year-old inn built to host businessmen, dignitaries and royalty in railroad mogul George Pullman’s company town — knows what that’s like.
Currently, the budget stalemate in Springfield has the renovations on hold, again.
But this week there’s a tiny bit of good news on the preservation front that’s worth celebrating.
The National Trust for Historic Preservation and American Express awarded our broke, budget-less state a $145,000 grant to restore at least some of the original stained-glass windows at the four-story Queen Anne-style luxury hotel designed by noted architect Solon Beman that opened in November 1881.
There's no word on when the window work — or the other stalled projects — will get get done. Still, the little things are something to smile about.
Here’s a look at the historic stained glass that’s worth saving. (See more in the slideshow above.)
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