Location: Toronto, ON
St. Paul’s Basilica was the first Roman Catholic congregation in Toronto, it was the only congregation between Kingston and Windsor. Originally built out of red brick the first basilica was built in 1822. When the Diocese of Toronto separated from the Diocese of Kingston in 1842, St. Paul’s served as the pro-cathedral until St. Michael’s Cathedral was completed in 1848.
EGD was contracted to restore some of heritage stained glass windows throughout the church. The clerestory windows and several other severely deteriorated stained glass windows were all the Church had the budget to restore at the time. The deterioration had occurred over time with only adhoc repairs being done.
The clerestory windows which donned center motifs had to be removed from their openings to be cleaned and disassembled. Bending, buckling and breakage had occurred to the glass which EGD had to repair.
A few other stained glass windows in the Church had broken glass lites and were on the verge of complete disintegration, EGD carefully cleaned and restored the glass lites and reinstalled the windows back into their openings.
Wood frames of the exterior windows were cracked, withered and rotting, the putty was thickly layered onto the wood thus creating bending and buckling to the lead came matrix. EGD removed the windows from the wood frames, the stained glass was repaired. The wood frames were replaced and putty was correctly applied.
To finish the restoration project EGD installed secondary glazing to the exterior of the building to prevent further damage and vandalism.