County to fix cracked courthouse dome glass

Inside the Monroe County Courthouse, ceilings in some rooms are still missing and carpet is yet to be laid. But renovation on the historic building, which began September 2011, is nearing completion.

However, workers recently discovered a problem. Two panes in a 100-year-old stained glass window beneath the building’s dome are cracked.

Approximately 75 feet above the courthouse’s ground floor, on the underside of the structure’s dome, is a large stained glass window. Dirt, debris and bird droppings covered the historic glass, which hadn’t been cleaned for years.

“The dome is so high it is nearly impossible to clean because, above the floor, it is basically open all the way to the top of the dome,” said Mark Stoops, Monroe County Commission president.

Construction work on the courthouse began after renovations in the county assessor’s office revealed structural problems throughout the entire building.

Because the steel beams supporting each of the floors in the building were initially placed too far apart, additional beams were added beneath each of the floors.

“When they were renovating the assessor’s office, they took a core sample of the concrete floor and determined it was not even 25 percent of the structural strength required for the building,” Stoops said.

Currently, workers are adding the finishing touches to each of the different offices, said Site Manager Bill Ludlow of Weddle Bros. Construction Co. Although each of the rooms are in different stages, Ludlow said the construction work is only slightly behind schedule.

Putting the steel beams beneath the floors was the most difficult part of the construction, Ludlow said. But another challenge, he said, was just dealing with the old building, which was built in 1906.

During this extensive construction work, grime covered the building further, Stoops said, so the commissioners decided to have it cleaned.

That is when workers discovered two of the four panes in the glass are cracked. While one of the white panes has a minor hole, only allowing a small ray of sunlight to seep into the courthouse below, the other pane is different.

“I had never noticed it before, but once they were cleaned, the crack was obvious,” Stoops said. “It turned out that when they were replacing the copper dome, a workman dropped a hammer on it and it cracked, but because it was a type of safety glass, it was never repaired.”

Copper siding surrounding the dome’s exterior was replaced in 2006.
The dropped hammer cracked the pane from one end to the other, which is approximately eight feet across and three feet wide.

“Part of the issue is trying to find appropriate replacement glass. Any modern glass we put in is so obviously different from the old glass that it wouldn’t look right,” Stoops said. “So we’re researching and trying to find chutes of glass that are big enough, because it is a large, continuous piece of glass.”

City Glass of Bloomington, Inc., is currently searching for a matching piece of glass, and if this glass is found, they will also perform the installation.

But finding the correct glass might not be possible, Stoops said.

“The difficult part is seeing if, once we find a piece of glass, if it really looks the same from the floor, or if not, finding enough glass to replace all the panels at once,” Stoops said.

And if all panels are replaced at once, finding modern glass could be cheaper. But if finding matching glass is not an option, leaving the cracked glass in the building is also a possibility.

“The glass itself is stable and won’t fall down, so there is a possibility of leaving the glass,” Stoops said. “If anything, it kind of records a historic event on the courthouse of a worker dropping a hammer on it. Hopefully we can replace it.”

Although Stoops said construction on the courthouse is about a month behind, with the addition of searching for the glass, the setback only requires that county offices remain in their current locations in the Showers Building until construction is complete.

Although an exact date has not yet been set, Stoops said there will be an open house at the Courthouse upon construction completion in August. Whether the county decides to replace the glass or not, Stoops said the courthouse will look different than anybody has ever seen.