Medina will repair stained-glass window at Boxwood chapel

Village asked to consider renaming State Street Park in honor of Burroughs family

The stained-glass window donated by the late Silas Burroughs will be repaired. The window and the chapel at Boxwood Cemetery were featured on Sept. 26 in a night-time tour of the cemetery. Catherine Cooper, county historian at center, is shown discussing the window.

MEDINA – The Friends of Boxwood Cemetery have met their fundraising goal of $7,500 to repair the stained-glass window in the chapel at Boxwood.

The window was donated by the late Silas Burroughs, who was influential in the pharmaceutical industry. Burroughs and Henry Wellcome pioneered the use of Empirin Compound for headaches. They also developed a technique to make powdered medicine more palatable by making pills.

Burroughs in his estate left money to Boxwood Cemetery. The bottom half of the window and frame will be repaired by Pike Stained Glass Studios in Rochester. The company will remove the window in the spring and try to have it back in place in time for next year’s “Boxwood at Night” event, where many of the cemetery paths were lighted up.

The inaugural “Boxwood at Night” on Sept. 26 attracted more than 200 people. The event was a big fundraiser for the window restoration. There was also music and seven stops with docents or interpreters discussing people buried in the cemetery. One of the stops was inside the chapel where people could see the window donated by Burroughs.

The Village Board approved the repair at a cost of $6,750 with the money coming from the Friends of Boxwood.

Todd Bensley, the village historian and member of the Friends of Boxwood, said a bigger goal for the Friends of Boxwood is a complete restoration of the Medina Sandstone chapel. The group would like to get contractors in the building over the winter to prepare bids for a project.

Bensley also asked the Village Board on Monday to consider an interpretive panel about Burroughs and his father at State Street Park. The panel would be done in a similar style as the ones in the downtown. Bensley said once the panel is designed it will be presented to the board for its input.

Burroughs father, Silas Burroughs, was a member of Congress from 1857 until his death on March 4, 1860. The elder Burroughs was a lawyer, a brigadier general in the New York State Militia and a state assemblyman.

The family home was at State Street Park until 1916. Bensley asked the board to consider renaming the park in honor of the Burroughs family.

That request was made to the village in 2019 by Chris Busch, the former Village Planning Board chairman and current president of the Orleans Renaissance Group.

Bensley said the village previously renamed a park. South Main Street Park was renamed Butts Park in honor of John Butts, a Medal of Honor recipient in World War II.

“We’re not asking for it to happen today, but trying to gauge the interest level,” Bensley said during Monday’s board meeting.

Village Trustee Marguerite Sherman said one possibility could be naming the new pavilion at the park in memory of the Burroughs family.

“The village board needs some time to digest,” Mayor Mike Sidari responded to Bensley.

The board last month approved having a sidewalk at the corner of the park leading to a World War I cannon. An anonymous donor is covering the cost.