POTSDAM -- Ed Dehors of Historical Restorations Foundation has begun his work at the United Methodist Church, 26 Main St., to remove for restoration the large window on the Union Street side of the church.

The window is dominated by a large round Madonna and Christ Child panel at the center based on a famous 16th century painting by Raphael.

The window is one of more than 40 stained glass windows in the church that were designed and fabricated by Ogdensburg stained glass artist Harry Horwood.

Potsdam United Methodist Church has received a gift from an anonymous donor, who has pledged to contribute one dollar for every dollar donated, up to $15,000, toward a project to repair and restore the historic stained glass windows.

The organizers have created a “gofundme” web page at https://www.gofundme.com/stained-glass-window-repair-fund to raise the matching funds.

The goal is a total of $44,000 to restore the two largest 110-year-old, stained glass windows. That means the congregation is being asked to give $15,000 to receive the full gift from the donor, and then and additional $14,000 to finish the project.

Originally, the windows were given in memory or honor of individuals in the church community. The donors’ names appear on the windows. The restoration specialist does have the ability to add new donor names to the windows, according to the organizers of the restoration. They say they would like to offer that as an option for those who donate over $1,000 to the project.

The large Horwood window being removed now consists of 23 leaded panels of various shapes and sizes including the large central panel.

Each of those panels is being removed individually, mounted in a wooden frame and wrapped in plastic for transport to the studio of stained glass master craftsman Dehors at his Historical Restorations Foundation, a non-profit organization in Martville, N.Y.

During previous visits to the church to assess the condition of the windows, Dehors said, he discovered that over the years the two biggest panels had been “messed with multiple times, with many things done wrong.”

The stained glass panels will be gone for three or four months of restoration work, Dehors said. Each panel of the window will be entirely dismantled, cleaned and restored with fresh came, as the lead between the pieces of glass is known, and fresh color, if required.

“The only paint in these windows is the fleshtones,” Dehors said. All the other colors are created with colored glass, using layers of different shades for variation in hue.

Dehors is doing the work with his son Jonathan, a chiropractor who is taking some time off to be part of the project, and author and historian David Martin of Ogdensburg, president of the newly formed Horwood Stained Glass Museum, which he is working to establish in the city.

The museum is dedicated to the stained glass artistry of Harry Horwood and members of his family, and is also raising funds to get established in a permanent setting, dedicated to the restoration, preservation, collection and exhibition of Horwood’s fine windows.

More info on the museum project is at horwoodstainedglassmuseum.org.

Horwood was an Englishman who emigrated to Canada, returned to England, and eventually settled in Ogdensburg. He made and installed stained glass work all over Ontario and northern New York in the late 1800s and early 1900s, including St. Philip's Episcopal Church in Norwood, and many locations in Ogdensburg, including The Frederic Remington Museum, the First Presbyterian Church, Notre Dame Church, the Congregational Church, and the First Baptist Church, according to the Ogdensburg History web site (http://ogdensburghistory.blogspot.com/2014/11/horwood-stained-glass-company.html). Other Horwood work can be seen in places like Washington, D.C., Ottawa, New York City, and Quebec.