Restored Windows Return to Conservancy Hall
Alden Witham and his grandson in Glen Conservancy Hall posing in front of a reinstalled window.
On April 8, 2025, The Preservation League shared the exciting news that the Glen Conservancy was one of six organizations receiving funding from the Preservation Opportunity Fund. The Glen Conservancy was awarded $15,000 toward the restoration of their historic windows. That grant, matched by a community donor, enabled Alden Witham, Master Craftsman of Contractors' Millwork, to restore the building’s circa 1830s windows. Alden removed the windows from the Hall and completed their full restoration and repainting in his Sharon Springs workshop. In late December, Alden and his grandson (pictured) reinstalled the restored windows.
By his own estimation, Alden Witham has restored thousands of windows over the course of his decades-long career. The project he completed for Glen Conservancy Hall included eight double-hung Federal period windows, which feature 30-over-30 light sash and Gothic-patterned muntins in segmentally arched transoms (pictured below). His workshop in Sharon Springs is home to dozens of century-old wood working machines alongside modern sandblasters and steam cleaners. The care and attention he is able to put into each and every window comes from years of skill acquired through his hands-on work and ongoing dedication to his craft.
Alden Witham in his Sharon Springs workshop with a window from Conservancy Hall, July 2025.
Conservancy Hall currently serves the Glen community and the diverse upstate Mohawk Valley region as a venue for concerts, workshops, and organizational meetings, including an annual harvest festival and the annual Memorial Day parade. The Hall is a gable roofed, clapboarded timber frame meeting house constructed in 1831 for a faction that split off from the local Dutch Reformed Church congregation.
In addition to the Preservation League’s POF grant, the Glen Conservancy is extraordinarily grateful to all those whose generous donations have enabled their ongoing preservation work, including: the Tianaderrah Foundation, the Fort Royal Foundation, Stewarts Shops, FAGE USA Dairy Industry, and Colorize Cares, Niskayuna, and the nonprofit charitable branch of Benjamin Moore.