Museum gift. The masterpiece was a gift 38 years ago to the Winona Historical Society museum , the armory’s latter-day occupant.
Winona glazier took on restoration as a pet project
Penic. For 30 years a career in stainedglass. President of Cathedral Crafts Studios, one of several Winona stainedglass companies.
Not alone. The central panorama is flanked by matching works. Image: Steve Lunde
WINONA, Minn. – The gorgeous stainedglass panorama of Winona history above the alley stable gate in the 1915 downtown armory, has been rediscovered, refurbished and returned to its former glory. The massive work of art — 16 feet across and arching to 9 feet — had been largely forgotten, obscured by yellowed storm windows and decades of dust and grit on the backside of the Winona history museum, the current occupant of the armory. Not surprisingly it was a glazier, Eric Penicof Winona, who made the restoration a pet project. Penic had watched the window’s gradual fading into obscurity from across a parking lot on the alley – on the the backside of the museum — and decided to do something about it. His restoration, now compete, includes a synthetic polymer covering guaranteed not to yellow. The idea: Never let the Ruth Lucas memorial window ever fade again as testimony to Winona’s reputation as home to generations of stainedglass artists.
Rising from faded glory
The window was designed by Edward Glubka in 1985 and presented to the Winona Historical society. It was dedicated to the memory of Ruth Lucas by her husband. For museum visitors, the window reigned as a grand overarching backdrop from the inside the museum. The sun originally made for a radiating brilliance most of the day. Gradually, however, it came to be taken for granted and, day by day became opaque with built-up dust and yellowing storm windows.