Faith’s sights and sounds
Church blessed with 17 stained-glass windows, restored pipe organ
Staff writer
Helen Reznicek has seen pastors and people come and go at Valley United Methodist Church, but one thing remains relatively the same: its stained-glass windows and pipe organ.
The church on Santa Fe and 3rd Sts. has been largely untouched since 1968, when the last major renovations moved its kitchen and office to where they are now.
Made and installed around what is said to be the 1920s, stained-glass windows fill the old-timey, mostly wooden nave with shades of vibrant yellows and oranges. Anyone, regardless of religious background, can appreciate them.
“It’s beautiful,” Reznicek said when the windows get sun kissed.
Depicting scenes and symbols from the Bible, 17 windows line the limestone walls. Each has a different story to tell.
“I just think they’re really unique windows,” Les Byer, a Valley Church trustee, said, “really well done and historical from the standpoint of how long they’ve existed there. It’s a very beautiful building.”
Done in a traditional style, every panel of the windows was assembled using soldering. Most are assembled using lead and copper nowadays.
Byer and other trustees have ensured that the windows stay intact, especially during seasons with heavy thunderstorms and other severe weather.
Acrylic material was installed in 2024 on the outside of them for added protection. Lexan glass sheets previously used made the windows opaque and hard to see.
“This newer acrylic material is supposed to weather better,” Byer said. “We have that on the windows for protection from hail damage, which we felt was a very good thing to have this spring with all the storms we’ve had.”
More complex, and just as integral to Valley Church, the pipe organ was built and installed in 1907, some 10-plus years before the windows are said to have been put in.
Reuter Organ Co., based in Lawrence, rebuilt the organ in 1938 before more additions were added in 1974. Some of the biggest changes included moving the pipes, which total 1,200 to 1,500, out of sight.
Burton Tidwell, the organist at Valley Church, has upgraded and updated the organ since 1999. With advancements in technology, a midi sequencer connected to a thumb drive controls music for each service.
“You just press play, and then press start,” Tidwell said, “and it plays the organ back exactly as I did it. It’s not an audio recording. It’s strictly the organ playing.”
Tidwell is working to rewire the organ into an ethernet system.
“That allows us to pre-record the organ, and it plays itself back on Sunday,” Tidwell said.
When he started working on the organ, Tidwell said, nearly 200 people packed into the pews each Sunday. These days, around a tenth of that show up.
“On a good day, we have 25,” Reznicek said.
It’s a dedicated crowd, and one that finds no shortage of historic design, architecture, and music.
“I played the dedication of the additions that were made in 1974,” Tidwell said. “One way or another, I’m always pulled back to this church. Marion has a pull for me.”