Boxwood will celebrate restored stained-glass window at chapel on May 18

Photos by Ginny Kropf: (Left) Rob Klino, president of the Friends of Boxwood Cemetery, left, and Jeff Wagner, a member of Friends, stand in front of the boarded up stained-glass window in the cemetery chapel. A restored window will be unveiled in a rededication ceremony May 18. (Right) Friends of Boxwood Cemetery’s president Rob Klino, left, and member Jeff Wagner stand in front of the historic Medina Sandstone chapel, which has been undergoing renovations and restoration of one of its stained-glass windows.

MEDINA – Friends of Boxwood Cemetery have been engaged for more than a year in a project to raise funds to restore a stained-glass window in the historic Silas Mainville Burroughs chapel, built of Medina Sandstone.

“We are trying to bring it back to life,” said Rob Klino, president of Friends of Boxwood Cemetery. “We raised enough to restore the window, so we decided to go ahead and redo the interior of the chapel.”

Their project will be unveiled in a rededication ceremony from 6 to 8 p.m. May 18.

“It’s been a total labor of love,” Klino said.

The village of Medina helped with the interior, along with volunteers Tim Tierney, Jeff Wagner, Tom Snyder and Craig Royal.

The restoration includes new paneling on the walls, lighting and the addition of pews to make it look like it would have in the past.

The rededication on May 18 will feature wine and cheese, a history of the chapel by Medina historian Todd Bensley (who just released his second book on Boxwood Cemetery) and a presentation by Valerie O’Hara from Pike Stained Glass Studio in Rochester, who did the restoration and repair of the chapel window.

The chapel was built in 1903 at a cost of $25,000, Klino said. It is named in honor of a Medina native, Silas Mainville Burroughs, who became famous as co-founder of the pharmaceutical giant, Burroughs Wellcome & Co. This is one of the companies which today make up GlaxoSmithKline.

When Burroughs died in 1895, he left more than $22,000 to Boxwood Cemetery. Burroughs was buried in Monte Carlo, Monaco, where he had died from pneumonia, and commissioners desired to have his body removed and re-interred in Boxwood Cemetery. When it became evident this would not happen, the commissioners began looking for a suitable memorial to this generous patron and native son.

They settled on building a chapel, which could serve not only as a memorial to Burroughs, but a place where funeral services could take place and bodies stored for the winter, waiting for spring burial.

Stone for the chapel was quarried mostly from the McCormick quarry, and is described as “beautiful brown stone.”

Tickets for the rededication ceremony are $25 for members of Friends of Boxwood Cemetery and $30 for non-members. They are available at English Rose Tea Shoppe, 527 Main St., or Thistle Ridge (Klino’s shop), at 418 Main St.

Klino also acknowledged Leonard Oakes Estate Winery for sponsoring wine for the event.