The Architectural, Artistic, and Historic Treasures at First Baptist Church of Sylacauga, Alabama

3. Stained Glass Inspirational Images
David Graves Photography
Our Sanctuary features magnificent stained glass
windows crafted in 1914 by the St. Joseph Glass
Works Company located in Kansas City, Missouri.
Their craftsmen took pride in faithfully reproducing
the illustrations of European artists whose images
were often published in the religious literature of
the day. With no international copyright laws, it
was possible to avoid paying royalties as artists
traced images and used colored glazes on clear
glass before kiln firing their work to bring out the
richest colors and infuse the glazes to the glass.
While some windows feature religious symbols
such as a Bible, a dove, a cross, or some lilies,
sixteen of the windows display reproductions of
original paintings. These include six very large
scenes on the two front walls, six small cameo
scenes on the back wall, and two small cameo
scenes in each of our two side vestibule areas.
We were pleased to discover that professional
photographer David Graves will include many
of our windows in his forthcoming coffee table
book highlighting a hundred similar churches.
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