10 best places to ooh and ahh over St. Louis’ stained glass treasures (2024)

Even the Clydesdales enjoy a home with stained glass.

Their stable at the brewery includes colorful windows (out of hoof range), an 1885 amenity that was common in homes, churches and businesses in south St. Louis before World War II.

“It’s a hallmark of south St. Louis homes,” says Aaron Frei, calling the area an unrecognized “epicenter” of Midwest stained glass.

Frei is president of Emil Frei & Associates, a glass studio based in St. Louis since 1898. He estimates the company has designed stained glass for more than 8,000 churches around the country.

Places of worship are the “natural home” for stained glass because the pieces deliver messages and stories, he says. In addition, the windows were designed as part of the original architecture of historic churches and some synagogues.

“The effect of stained glass cannot be considered aside from the architectural context,” he says. “The most compelling projects are — typically — those that occupy a beautiful architectural setting.”

Secular glass has a “more decorative quality,” Frei says, admitting his strong preference for sacred windows. Stained glass is entirely dependent on transmitted light, requiring an “opening in the shell of the building,” he says.

St. Louis’ history of stained glass counts multiple companies during the late Victorian era and the arts and crafts movement in the early 20th century. The Great Depression and war affected production, but interest seemed to rebound in the midcentury.

Part of the windows’ early popularity was a feeling that heavy curtains carried germs. The Missouri History Museum’s historian Andrew Wanko said in a KDHX report: “St. Louisans needed an affordable product that let them rip down the dusty curtains, while keeping both their privacy and their hip sense of style. Bathing your home in light filtered through fashionable artwork, stained glass windows were the perfect solution.”

And there were plenty of glass makers, he said: “They were mass produced by the thousands in block-long factories like Wendling Art Glass Company, Kerwin Ornamental Glass Company, and the Huttig Sash and Door Company. Mail order catalogs full of designs let homeowners custom build their own windows. You could pick the patterns, complexity and all the colors. Some catalogs even advertised that homeowners could send in wallpaper samples for the window makers to color-match.”

But one can hardly drop into private homes asking for a tour of their pretty windows. So where to go to admire some of the best? In addition to hundreds of sacred spaces, stained glass can be viewed in other public venues.

With suggestions from Frei; Andrew Weil, president of Landmarks Association; Jacob Preston, owner of Preston Art Glass; Michael Allen, architecture historian; and Andrew Hahn, director of the Campbell House, we offer 10 of the best public examples of stained glass in St. Louis.

There were plenty of other contenders, and these picks are subjective. But really, one can hardly go wrong in a city spoiled for choice.

Here, in no particular order, are 10 favorite works of stained glass that are available for viewing by the public. Do check hours on specific websites for access and to make an appointment if necessary.

Union Station

Almost all suggestions for great stained glass include the graceful window above the staircase in Union Station’s Grand Hall. The world’s busiest station when it opened in 1894, its 40-foot window centers on a female figure of St. Louis in the center, as two women face her (San Francisco and New York) in deference. The beautiful glass, attributed to designer Sylvester Annan for the Davis & Chambers Co., reinforces the city’s prominence as an important transportation center. The space is now a place to get drinks and food in the evening.

St. Francis de Sales Oratory

Most stained glass aficionados recommend St. Francis de Sales Oratory, nicknamed the Cathedral of South St. Louis. Although the saint Francis de Sales was French, the church was founded by Germans and modeled in the German Gothic style with dramatic arches, carved wood and decorative details. The windows were created by Emil Frei Sr., an immigrant who studied at the Munich School of Arts and Crafts. Some of the words on the windows are in German. The present church was dedicated in 1908, replacing an earlier building destroyed by the tornado of 1896. The church is at Gravois, Ohio and Lynch streets. Several other Catholic sites are worth a look, says Aaron Frei, including St. Cecilia, St. Anthony of Padua and St. John Nepomuck, as well as Epiphany Lutheran.

Cupples House

Zodiac figures, Roman gods and the four seasons are all part of one of the most unusual windows in St. Louis. The Cupples House is a historic house and museum on the campus of St. Louis University and it is worth visiting for many reasons. But its zodiac windows, along with other geometric and fleur-de-lis patterns in stained glass, are worthy alone. Official descriptions say the zodiac windows were based on a design by pre-Raphaelite artist Edward Burne-Jones and made by the Reed and Annan firm. At the bottom is a poem by St. Louis poet Eugene Fields written for the house and dated 1889, when the windows were installed. The house is free to enter, but check its website for hours. The Cupples House, 3673 West Pine Mall, is also within walking distance of St. Francis Xavier College Church, known for its superb windows by Emil Frei Jr.

Second Presbyterian Church

Thirteen of the church’s stained-glass windows were made by the Tiffany Co. The church says the style is representative of Louis Comfort Tiffany by using nature, layers of glass and “drapery glass” for robes that evoke folds with a mix of thick and thin textures. Second Presbyterian, 4501 Westminster Street, even offers tours of the windows by appointment. There are additional works by Cincinnati Church Window Co. and St. Louis’ Emil Frei studio. All of the windows near the sanctuary date from the early 1900s. Like Union Station and the Cupples House, the building is in the Romanesque Revival style. See also the much admired First Presbyterian Church of Kirkwood.

Central Library

Two great windows can be seen in the St. Louis Public Library, 1301 Olive Street. One honors “artes and littera” (or arts and literature) and the other “poesis and musica” (poetry and music). The windows, created by Gorham and Co. of New York, a Tiffany competitor, featured the “Tree of Knowledge” in one window and “Springs of Pegasus” in another. They are only part of the glamour of this 1912 Beaux Arts building: Check out frescoes, marble and woodwork, too. To see some of the original windows in another library, the Lewis and Clark branch of the St. Louis County Library, go to the new building in Moline Acres. Images of the explorers and Sacagawea were hung in the space at 9909 Lewis and Clark Boulevard.

Kol Rinah

Jacob Preston says one of his favorite glass creations is in a synagogue, Kol Rinah. Artist Rodney Winfield designed the windows in the 1950s with symbols related to the Ten Commandments for a different space, Shaare Zedek. But the windows, which are “3-D,” not flat, are now installed in the Kol Rinah Guller Chapel. The synagogue, interestingly enough, also adapted a former church building, keeping some of its original Frei windows. Their look is not specifically Christian, but all include an image of an open book; the synagogue adapted them by having an artist add Hebrew words referring to Jewish law. Visitors must make an appointment to see the glass, 7701 Maryland Avenue. Another synagogue with notable stained glass is Shaare Emeth’s contemporary panels by renowned artist Dale Chihuly.

Magnolia Hotel St. Louis (formerly Mayfair Hotel)

Wine, women and song seems to be the theme of the windows in the Magnolia Hotel, 421 North Eighth Street. Oh, and beer. Lots of beer. Figures in glass sit at tables raising their steins, or in other scenes, a men court women with music and goblets. The windows were installed in the historic Mayfair Hotel’s restaurant in 1933, at the end of prohibition. The Carondelet Historical Society says the glass maker was Jacoby Art Glass Studios, which also did presumably more sober work for churches. Windows are in a room at the front of the hotel and in the hotel’s rear restaurant (which is closed in between meal times; it is open for dinner from 4-10 p.m.).

St. Mark’s Episcopal Church

A designated City Landmark, the church in St. Louis Hills is considered the first modern church building in St. Louis. Dedicated in 1939, it includes modern art glass that has Christian symbols along with those of social injustice. Made by the Frei studio, the windows were designed by Robert Harmon. The church is at 4714 Clifton Avenue. Even more contemporary art glass was commission in 2022 by the Episcopal Church of the Holy Communion in University City. Artist Cbabi Bayoc shows Jesus as a person of color and Mary Magdalene with a raised fist.

Kraus House/Ebsworth Park

A stained glass artist made his own works for this midcentury home designed by Frank Lloyd Wright. One of only five homes in Missouri designed by Wright, it was completed in 1956 after Russell and Ruth Kraus sought the help of the famous American architect. The glass, with its relatively simple, geometric style, complements the architecture of the house and seems to reference Wright’s own designs. Ticketed, one-hour tours of the Kirkwood property, 120 North Ballas Road, are available.

Sheldon Concert Hall

Five windows in the Concert Hall were designed by Rodney Winfield and installed by Frei in 2001. Access is often limited to concertgoers, however (although the space’s art galleries are free and have open hours). When they were installed, it was reported in the Post-Dispatch that the title was “Theme and Variation,” with most of the variation coming from colors. The windows took nine years of planning and cost about $100,000. In addition to St. Louis windows, Winfield is known for the “Space Window” in the National Cathedral.