09/03/2024
The St. Mark’s story is, to a great extent, the story of windows—big windows, mysterious windows, old windows, famous windows, stained glass windows, and the restoration of original 1830 clear glass windows. No story of windows at St. Mark’s will ever be complete without a deep bow of appreciation to Scott Mathison of Scott's Doors and Windows.
For ten years, we have been in varying states of dialog, problem-solving, and collaboration with Scott, a beloved neighbor and master craftsman. A native Southern Californian who transplanted to Warren with his family several decades ago, he brought with him his genius for all things mechanical, from motorcycle engines to racing bikes to model trains. He grafted his creative, mechanically-inclined mind and super skilled hands onto a pressing need in a small 18th and 19th century coastal townscape undergoing continual renewal: historic doors and windows.
By the time we met Scott in 2014, his was the only game in town; he was the go-to fabricator for historically accurate, beautifully built doors and windows up and down the East Bay. Together with Scott, we set out to restore Russell Warren’s 1830 vision for St. Mark’s as a wood-frame Greek revival temple of light. That would mean reclaiming it from the darkening effects of late 19th century stained glass, and restoring clear glass to 15-foot tall openings—fully operable, double-hung sashes and their Palladian half-rounds.
It took us a while, but by 2022 we were ready to go. Using Russell Warren, Architect original 1830 windows as template, Scott and his right-hand woman, Ali Ayers, had fabricated seven replacement windows in the shop and primed them. Now it was time to hang them. First, thick storm panes applied in the energy crisis of the 1970s had to come off, and four late 19th C stained glass windows removed. With the milky, pebbled storm panes off, we got our first good look at the now famous 1877 window depicting Christ and Gospel women as people of color. That window, and the others, had to be carefully extricated, fully intact, lowered to the ground without damaging heavy wood frames, brittle glass, or soft lead caming. Peter and Scott worked together with Ali, Mike Salamon, and Ed Mota to engineer the process, tilting the intact windows no more than 10 degrees and gently sliding hundreds of pounds to the ground. The massive side windows stood in the church, fully upright and undamaged, until they departed for their new homes.
The altar window was too large and heavy to dismantle intact; it was removed in pieces. You can see Scott peering, God-like, through the top roundel above the Holy Family as he began the surgical work of removing the window piece by piece.
Scott suffered a heart attack yesterday and passed away, way too soon, leaving a family and a community stunned and grieving. And grateful. As a mutual friend pointed out, we are left with, arguably, his masterwork at St. Mark’s: a taut New England clapboard building punctured by huge multipaned panels of light, sliding on counterweights from both top and bottom to catch the light and breeze. Scott’s work, conducted with an easy-going confidence and a love of story-telling, returned a former church to fuller witness of creation: seasons, trees, weather, wind, community, neighbor, light, change, time. We are honored to have his work, his hands, his mind and spirit, deeply infused into the interior and exterior architecture of the building. Whether seen from inside or out, we hope the building's astonishing windows will remind you always of kind, warm, unflappable, deeply capable, and inspired Scott Mathison.
