John Klingensmith, left, and Sean Hilburn, of Stanton Studios, guide a refurbished stained glass window into place inside the sanctuary of St. John's United Methodist Church in Richmond, Tuesday, Aug. 25, 2026.

John Klingensmith, left, and Sean Hilburn, of Stanton Studios, guide a refurbished stained glass window into place inside the sanctuary of St. John’s United Methodist Church in Richmond, Tuesday, Aug. 25, 2026.

Brett Coomer/Houston ChronicleSean Hilburn, of Stanton Studios, guide a refurbished stained glass window into place inside the sanctuary of St. John's United Methodist Church in Richmond, Tuesday, Aug. 25, 2026.

Sean Hilburn, of Stanton Studios, guide a refurbished stained glass window into place inside the sanctuary of St. John’s United Methodist Church in Richmond, Tuesday, Aug. 25, 2026.

Brett Coomer/Houston ChronicleSean Hilburn, of Stanton Studios, guides a refurbished stained glass window into place inside the sanctuary of St. John's United Methodist Church in Richmond, Tuesday, Aug. 25, 2026.

Sean Hilburn, of Stanton Studios, guides a refurbished stained glass window into place inside the sanctuary of St. John’s United Methodist Church in Richmond, Tuesday, Aug. 25, 2026.

Brett Coomer/Houston ChronicleA stained glass window set to be refurbished is shown above the altar in the sanctuary at St. John's United Methodist Church in Richmond, Tuesday, Aug. 25, 2026.

A stained glass window set to be refurbished is shown above the altar in the sanctuary at St. John’s United Methodist Church in Richmond, Tuesday, Aug. 25, 2026.

Brett Coomer/Houston ChronicleSean Hilburn, of Stanton Studios, guide a refurbished stained glass window into place inside the sanctuary of St. John's United Methodist Church in Richmond, Tuesday, Aug. 25, 2026.

Sean Hilburn, of Stanton Studios, guide a refurbished stained glass window into place inside the sanctuary of St. John’s United Methodist Church in Richmond, Tuesday, Aug. 25, 2026.

Brett Coomer/Houston ChronicleRichard Luna, senior pastor at St. John's United Methodist Church, watches the progress as refurbished stained glass windows are reinstalled in the church’s sanctuary in Richmond, Tuesday, Aug. 25, 2026.

Richard Luna, senior pastor at St. John’s United Methodist Church, watches the progress as refurbished stained glass windows are reinstalled in the church’s sanctuary in Richmond, Tuesday, Aug. 25, 2026.

Brett Coomer/Houston ChronicleSean Hilburn, of Stanton Studios, guides a refurbished stained glass window into place inside the sanctuary of St. John's United Methodist Church in Richmond, Tuesday, Aug. 25, 2026.

Sean Hilburn, of Stanton Studios, guides a refurbished stained glass window into place inside the sanctuary of St. John’s United Methodist Church in Richmond, Tuesday, Aug. 25, 2026.

Brett Coomer/Houston ChronicleJohn Klingensmith, left, and Sean Hilburn, of Stanton Studios, guide a refurbished stained glass window into place inside the sanctuary of St. John's United Methodist Church in Richmond, Tuesday, Aug. 25, 2026.

John Klingensmith, left, and Sean Hilburn, of Stanton Studios, guide a refurbished stained glass window into place inside the sanctuary of St. John’s United Methodist Church in Richmond, Tuesday, Aug. 25, 2026.

Brett Coomer/Houston ChronicleJohn Klingingsmith, of Stanton Studios, works on reinstalling a refurbished stained glass window into place inside the sanctuary of St. John's United Methodist Church in Richmond, Tuesday, Aug. 25, 2026.

John Klingingsmith, of Stanton Studios, works on reinstalling a refurbished stained glass window into place inside the sanctuary of St. John’s United Methodist Church in Richmond, Tuesday, Aug. 25, 2026.

Brett Coomer/Houston ChronicleSean Hilburn, left, and Timothy Stanton, of Stanton Studios, guide a refurbished stained glass window into place inside the sanctuary of St. John's United Methodist Church in Richmond, Tuesday, Aug. 25, 2026.

Sean Hilburn, left, and Timothy Stanton, of Stanton Studios, guide a refurbished stained glass window into place inside the sanctuary of St. John’s United Methodist Church in Richmond, Tuesday, Aug. 25, 2026.

Brett Coomer/Houston ChronicleA historical marker is posted outside St. John's United Methodist Church, where refurbished stained glass windows are being reinstalled, is shown in Richmond, Tuesday, Aug. 25, 2026.

A historical marker is posted outside St. John’s United Methodist Church, where refurbished stained glass windows are being reinstalled, is shown in Richmond, Tuesday, Aug. 25, 2026.

Brett Coomer/Houston ChronicleSt. John's United Methodist Church, where refurbished stained glass windows are being reinstalled, is shown in Richmond, Tuesday, Aug. 25, 2026.

St. John’s United Methodist Church, where refurbished stained glass windows are being reinstalled, is shown in Richmond, Tuesday, Aug. 25, 2026.

Brett Coomer/Houston Chronicle

Balanced on a metal scaffold outside a historic church in Richmond, a group of stained-glass experts carefully restored a piece of a church window that’s over 100 years old.

A dwindling number of workers are trained in restoring and preserving stained glass pieces like those at St. John’s United Methodist Church. While the glass itself can last for centuries, the black metal lines between panels, called the lead matrix, wear out with age. St. John’s windows had begun to bow after 103 years of exposure to Texas heat. 

READ MORE: Third Ward church’s stained glass commemorates Bible stories and Black history

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The church’s small congregation, which sees about 275 people on an average weekend, was determined to save its windows, despite a price tag of about half a million dollars for the restoration. 

“We got some fourth and fifth generation people here who have grown up in this church, and they look at the stained glass, they look at the features of the church, and say: ‘This is something worth keeping,’” said the Rev. Richard Luna.

John Klingensmith, left, and Timothy Stanton, of Stanton Studios, guide a refurbished stained glass window into place inside the sanctuary of St. John's United Methodist Church in Richmond, Tuesday, Aug. 25, 2026.

John Klingensmith, left, and Timothy Stanton, of Stanton Studios, guide a refurbished stained glass window into place inside the sanctuary of St. John’s United Methodist Church in Richmond, Tuesday, Aug. 25, 2026.

Brett Coomer/Houston Chronicle

The church sits across from Richmond City Hall and traces its history back to two years after Richmond’s incorporation in 1837. Its current building is a Texas historic landmark, so congregants have begun applying for grants to help cover the cost of the restoration and already raised about $170,000, according to Luna.

Not every small church can afford to give a historic building the care it requires. But for those that can, a handful of experts still specialize in stained glass work — like Waco-based Stanton Studios, which is tasked with St. John’s restoration. 

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Bryant Stanton founded the company in the 1970s, and all four of his sons are a part of it. Timothy and Jordan, who came to St. John’s Tuesday to install some of the refurbished windows, said the dying art is a calling. 

READ MORE: Houston’s oldest Black Baptist church awarded part of $4 million grant to repair stained glass windows

“Being able to preserve some of the past is a really important job,” Jordan Stanton said in an interview. After a lifetime of restoring and building stained glass, along with wood and metal work, his eye is trained to assess the structure and design of any building he visits. 

He loves fostering long-term relationships with the people whose churches he works on. One example is First Presbyterian Church in Galveston; Stanton has been at work restoring the church’s opalescent glass windows since 2007 and has just one window left. Timothy Stanton said that’s the hardest job he’s worked on, due to the age and intricacy of famed artist Louis Comfort Tiffany’s design. 

To restore the windows, Jordan Stanton said they must be completely disassembled so the lead matrix connecting the glass pieces can be swapped out. The pieces are soaked in a solution of detergents for 24 hours, cleaned with a soft brush, and repainted if necessary. Any broken or mismatched glass is mended or replaced. 

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The crew from Stanton Studios lift a refurbished stained glass window up a scaffold as they reinstall it at St. John's United Methodist Church in Richmond, Tuesday, Aug. 25, 2026.

The crew from Stanton Studios lift a refurbished stained glass window up a scaffold as they reinstall it at St. John’s United Methodist Church in Richmond, Tuesday, Aug. 25, 2026.

Brett Coomer/Houston Chronicle

Stanton is one of only about three art glass manufacturers in the country that specializes in creating original stained glass pieces, not just restoring them. That’s part of the work they’re doing for First Baptist Church in Dallas, one of Texas’ largest congregations. After the church’s historic sanctuary burned down in a four-alarm fire in 2024, the congregation commissioned Stanton to create 16 brand new pieces of glass for a rebuild of that sanctuary, according to Jordan.

READ MORE: Inside the Houston church where history lives in every pew

For longtime members of St. John’s, the restoration of the church’s beloved windows is an occasion for celebration. To mark the reinstallation of several windows happening Tuesday — the full process is likely to take three to five years in total — dozens of church members gathered for snacks, with strips of tablecloth that look like stained glass adorning a spread of tables. 

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Davis Scarborough, 78, has attended the church almost all his life and couldn’t imagine going anywhere else. One of the windows holds a particular significance for him, as it bears the name of his great-grandmother, Jennie Jones. After she died in 1926, her husband in 1929 gifted the church money for an education building, before he passed in 1930.

“Our whole family’s been here forever and ever and ever,” Scarborough said.