Cedar Rot and 200-Year-Old Glass: A Craftsman Restores 14 Windows at a Historic Bermuda Rectory

• Robert Powell restored 14 century-old windows at St Peter’s Church rectory in St George’s
• He spliced in new cedar where the old frames had rotted
• Some of the glass panes are estimated to be about 200 years old
• Friends of St Peter’s Church paid more than $20,000 for the work

The rectory of St Peter’s Church in St George’s, Bermuda, got a careful restoration in 2021. The Royal Gazette reported that craftsman Robert Powell, 66, spent two months restoring 14 century-old windows at the house, which stands behind the Unfinished Church on Government Hill Road and is home to the Rev Tom Slawson and his family.

Powell found serious cedar rot in the frames. “On one of the windows I had to replace the whole bottom,” he said. Elsewhere he spliced in new cedar rather than replacing whole frames, and many of the old panes, estimated at about 200 years old, could be kept.

The house has a long history. The rectory stands on the site of the former Government House, built in 1721. When the capital moved to Hamilton in 1815, the building was left empty. In 1874 its front was demolished and parts of it were used to build the rectory alongside the Unfinished Church.

Powell came away impressed by the original builders. “They didn’t have the tools that we have today. They put in this weatherstrip that helped to stop the window blowing in, or falling out during a hurricane,” he said. The Friends of St Peter’s Church, set up in 2005 to preserve the site, paid for the window repairs, new blinds and stonework, which together cost more than $20,000.

Jamaica’s old rectories and manses, many built of timber and stone in the 1800s, face the same enemies of rot, termites and storms. The St Peter’s approach, repairing rather than replacing and funded by a dedicated friends group, is a sensible model for heritage church property. Diaspora members of historic Jamaican parishes could form similar friends groups abroad to pay for specific repairs, helping protect both the building and its value.

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