Stained glass at Pollard Memorial Library

November 24, 2010 by DickH Posted in Lowell 1 Comment

Tony Sampas shows us two of the incredible stained glass windows in our city’s Pollard Memorial Library

UPDATE: Tony sent along the following information about these two windows

From the Pollard’ website: “Altogether a creditable building” boasted a local newspaper when Lowell’s Memorial Building opened in 1893… A disastrous fire in 1915 nearly destroyed this beautiful building, and left the Memorial Hall a blackened ruin. Immediately the city began to rebuild. Frederick W. Stickney, architect of the original structure, planned the reconstruction of Memorial Hall…The eight original leaded glass commemorative windows were reproduced, at a cost of $1,475.”

My guess is that the first image is of the archangel Gabriel and the second (with the shield) is the Greek goddess Athena.

One Response to Stained glass at Pollard Memorial Library

  1. Anonymous says:

    Beautiful. These, and a lot of Tony’s other photos, would make wonderful greeting cards or framed prints. The angel looks like a female to me though; she’s riding side saddle, the high waist line, and…well, hips and breasts?

    Below-I’ve never seen Athena depicted without a helmet and usually a spear. The shield is there, but you often see the Medusa’s head on hers. No owl which you see with depictions of Athena, but of course this is a modern artist, who knows what he
    or she was thinking? I’d vote for a nonspecific figure such as “Learning.”

    I wonder if the info is buried in the archives of the library somewhere.