by Tablet Staff

The Sisters of St. Dominic of Amityville on Long Island and Blessed Sacrament Roman Catholic Church in Buffalo have each received a grant from The New York Landmarks Conservancy to help restore their stained glass windows.

Announced by the conservancy on May 27, the Sisters of St. Dominic of Amityville will receive $3,000 for stained glass restoration consulting services, while Blessed Sacrament Church will receive $10,000 to restore its stained glass windows.

The New York Landmarks Conservancy is a nonprofit organization that works to preserve historic buildings around the state. It awards grants through its Sacred Sites program. In its first round of the year, the organization awarded 21 grants totaling $287,500 to 18 historic religious properties across New York State, including the Sisters of St. Dominic of Amityville and Blessed Sacrament Church. 

“We are pleased to help another 18 historic religious institutions throughout the state,” said Peg Green, president of The New York Landmarks Conservancy, said in a statement announcing the recipients. “Religious buildings tell the story of our history, our immigration patterns, and our architectural growth. They also anchor communities. Collectively, these grantees serve 94,500 people beyond their congregations with social service and cultural programming.”

To be eligible for a grant, a property must be located in New York State, owned by a religious institution and actively used for worship, and be listed on the State or National Register of Historic Places or designated a contributing component of a historic district, according to the organization’s website.

Stained glass restoration was a recurring need among the recipients. Speaking with The Tablet, Breen emphasized the significance the windows hold to church communities.

“Stained glass windows are usually very important to the congregation and the church,” she explained. “They hold the history of families who dedicated the windows to loved ones, and there are a lot of really wonderful stained glass windows in some of these churches. … They are very important to their history and to American history.”

The $3,000 awarded to the Sisters of St. Dominic of Amityville will allow them to hire a stained-glass consultant to assess a large window in their chapel and solicit multiple proposals from restoration firms, which ensures that the sisters get the right work at the right price, Breen said.

The sisters’ complex spans five buildings on 19 acres in North Amityville on Long Island’s South Shore. Founded by missionary nuns who emigrated from Regensburg, Germany, in the 1850s, the campus today serves roughly 1,100 people annually through a food pantry, an English language program, elder care services, and partnerships with nearby Molloy University.

Blessed Sacrament Church, founded in 1887, has 31 stained glass windows. A comprehensive restoration of all 31 windows will take place through the grant, according to The New York Landmarks Conservancy. 

In grant cycles, dating back from 2023 to 2025, four diocesan properties have received awards from the program: St. Patrick’s Church in Brooklyn received $15,000 for door restoration; Holy Family-St. Thomas Aquinas Parish received $15,000 for masonry, window, and gutter repairs; St. Michael’s Church in Sunset Park received $30,000 for roof, parapet, and gutter restoration; and St. Raphael Church in Long Island City received $20,000 for roof replacement.

The Sacred Sites Program, now in its fourth decade, has awarded more than 1,700 grants totaling over $14.75 million to more than 880 religious institutions statewide since 1986, helping to leverage over $820 million in repair and restoration projects.