Age, Beauty and Our Church / The Big Round Window
The large windows on both east and west walls were created from works of art by men living in Dresden, Germany. Bernard Plockhorst (1825-1907) studied in Munich and taught in Weimar Art School. Heinrich Hoffman (1824-1911) studied in academies in Europe and in 1862 became a teacher in Dresden. Both were noted for their paintings of the life of Christ. These two windows, plus the Rosette on the south side, are part of the 50 stained and art glass windows in our church building. They were created and installed by the Pittsburgh Plate Glass Company during erection of the 1907 building.
The Rosette window frame on the south wall of our church was constructed by Frank X. Freyder at his planning mill situated on the southeast corner of Gilbert and Burlington Streets. The artisans there had been trained in Germany, and both Frank and brother George were the last of those workers. This mill had provided skilled craftsmanship for all of the churches of that day constructed in Iowa City, except the English Lutheran (where Gloria Dei now stands). The window frame was constructed in halves, as Mr. Freyder explained to Irving Weber years ago, and each half was placed in position from the inside as the building was being constructed. Then patterns were made of the design and colored glass was cut at the factory, one-eighth inch smaller than the pattern. This allowed from swelling and expansion of the frame as the weather changed. When the organ was installed in 1907 the pipes were located in front of this window, and it was not until a remodeling in 1941 that the beauty of the “big round window” was visible to the congregation.