This Old (Meeting) House Gets New (Converted) Windows

By Dottie Evans

Imagine the consternation experienced by trustees for the Newtown Meeting House at paying huge heating bills while watching the hot air go, literally, out the window.

Going out 27 windows to be exact.

According to Meeting House Events Coordinator Sherry Paisley, those handsome, tall 12 over 12 Meeting House windows that line the north and south sides of the historic old structure are a signature feature of the familiar landmark at the top of Church Hill Road, behind the flagpole.

But they are less than functional from a modern-day, energy-saving point of view.

“The wood around the sills was rotting and you could see blue sky through some of the gaps in the frames. On the south side, the sun was so hot that a hole had actually burned into the carpet,” Ms Paisley said.

“These are 40-foot ceilings, yet we are trying to keep this space warm in the winter. We’re ready to install air-conditioning for summer events,” she said.

Obviously, they do not want the cold air seeping out as well.

As far as Ms Paisley knows, the last time anything was done about the Meeting House windows –– aside from painting and the addition of storms –– was during the 1920s or the 1930s when the tape balance sash system was first put in to raise the lower windows.

Before installing the A/C, the trustees for the Heritage Preservation Trust of Newtown, which has stewardship over the Meeting House, decided to address the problem. Ms Paisley was delighted when the window renovation and conversion project was begun in November 2004 and it is slated for completion by March 2005.

“I asked around and found this wonderful company that had worked on the recent renovations of the college dormitories at Yale. They said they could use our current window units during the rebuilding process so we would retain the old look that we wanted,” she added.

Bi-Glass Systems is a nationally known company that specializes in making old windows energy-efficient while preserving the original window frames. The local franchise owned by Richard Fritzer is based in Newington, where clients’ windows are taken for repair, refurbishing, and repainting.

“The best way to describe the [conversion] process is to say it’s like filleting a fish,” Ms Paisley said.

“They open them up leaving the interior-facing surface of the windows intact. Then they put a new exterior panel on the outside surface that matches the style but contains UV-protected glass that is thermally more efficient. Then the two panels are joined back together.

“That means your renovated windows are now double-paned. So we won’t need the storms anymore,” she added.

The upper sashes have never moved and they still do not go up or down, she explained. But the lower ones may still be raised since screens are being installed.

As for washing the newly converted windows, Ms Paisley says, “That’s not a problem.”

She doesn’t do windows. But she plans to call a professional to come and do the job the old-fashioned way –– with a squeegee, soapy water, and his own paper towels.