Renovation Surprise: Stained Glass in the Floor

Here’s an email that came in from a Brooklyn Heights couple who run a design-build business called Dwellings Ltd and are in the process of renovating their own newly-purchased co-op.

I wanted to share an architectural find my husband and I uncovered during the demolition phase of a coop apartment we recently purchased. The apartment is in a stunning limestone building in Brooklyn Heights with the original mahogany trim, plasterwork and mosaic tiled hallway still intact. It’s one of the main reasons we were drawn to the apartment—this house was really something in its day. The apartment is on the second floor and there was what appeared to be an unused shaft between a closet and the kitchen that we could use as additional space. There was no evidence of the shaft in the apartment above or below. We figured it was the remnants of a very large dumbwaiter. After making the proverbial inspection hole, however, we discovered the interior was finished plaster and wainscot trim. Clearly not something one would have seen inside a dumbwaiter. It was also very large (3′ by 6′) and a ton of construction debris that had been piled inside the shaft from the renovation of the apartment above many years before.

Progressive removal of the debris during demolition proved that what we took for a floor was actually a glass panel. After completing the cleanup, we discovered the remnants of an amazing large stained-glass panel which would have served as artwork for the parlor floor below, lit from the shaft that at one time went clear up to the roof. In addition, there were windows into the shaft which would have provided fresh air to the center of the building. We were both happy to have found this piece and at the same time saddened that it was in the condition it was in. Why it wasn’t removed and put to good use at the time the shaft was run with duct work and closed up we can’t understand. We’ll attempt to resurrect it in some form, either cleaned up and left as the artifact it is, or disassembled and reconfigured into a more modest smaller piece. See the attached photos for what is left of this once-impressive large piece of artwork. Light under the small pieces of glass show many of the individual pieces have beautiful motifs painted on them—leaves, fruit, and geometric forms.

Another find during demolition was…

…a well constructed and hinged trap door set into the floorboards—clearly a place in the master bedroom suite where the man or lady of the house may have kept something valuable hidden. We always joke about finding treasure in a secret hiding place in these old buildings, and now we thought, here was the door to ours! Sadly, however, nothing but dust and wood scraps proved to be inside (see photos attached). Oh well, guess we’ll just have to continue to play Lotto and dream.