‘Buried treasure’: Stained-glass dome at Cultural Center gleams once again

With Michelangelo-like perseverance, they toiled beneath the vast ceiling, scraping away old paint with X-Acto knives or dissolving it with acetone-soaked cotton swabs.

And in the adjoining room, the 62,000-piece stained-glass dome had to be removed section by section, with each piece of glass individually cleaned.

On Friday, the once-grimy, oft-ignored Grand Army of the Republic Memorial Hall and Rotunda gleamed once again in the Chicago Cultural Center after a $15 million renovation.

“I really like what you did with the place,” joked the city’s cultural historian emeritus, Tim Samuelson, stroking his chin as he spoke to two dozen or so guests, including Mayor Lori Lightfoot. “This was a pretty sad-looking place.”

Lightfoot called it a “once-in-a-lifetime project,” saying, “We are thrilled to invite the public back into this magnificent space.”

A staff member of Mayor Lori Lightfoot stands near a window at the newly renovated Grand Army of the Republic (G.A.R.) Memorial Hall and Rotunda at the Chicago Cultural Center during a media opening of the space, Friday morning, March 25, 2022. Designed by Shepley, Rutan and Coolidge, the rooms were built in 1897 to pay tribute to Civil War veterans and their families. | Pat Nabong/Sun-Times

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The newly renovated dome of the Grand Army of the Republic (G.A.R.) Memorial Hall and Rotunda at the Chicago Cultural Center in the Loop is seen in this photo, Friday morning, March 25, 2022. Designed by Shepley, Rutan and Coolidge, the rooms were built in 1897 to pay tribute to Civil War veterans and their families. | Pat Nabong/Sun-Times

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Chicago Mayor Lori Lightfoot walks with her staff, Chicago Department of Cultural and Affairs and Special Events Commissioner Erin Harkey, in beige, and First Lady Amy Eshleman around the newly renovated Grand Army of the Republic (G.A.R.) Memorial Hall and Rotunda at the Chicago Cultural Center during a media opening of the space, Friday morning, March 25, 2022. Designed by Shepley, Rutan and Coolidge, the rooms were built in 1897 to pay tribute to Civil War veterans and their families. | Pat Nabong/Sun-Times

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The newly renovated Grand Army of the Republic (G.A.R.) Memorial Hall and Rotunda at the Chicago Cultural Center is seen during a media opening of the space, Friday morning, March 25, 2022. Designed by Shepley, Rutan and Coolidge, the rooms were built in 1897 to pay tribute to Civil War veterans and their families. | Pat Nabong/Sun-Times

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From right: T. Gunny Harboe, who oversaw the restoration project, to Cultural Historian Emeritus for the City of Chicago Tim Samuelson, Chicago Mayor Lori Lightfoot and First Lady Amy Eshleman have a brief conversation as they look around the newly renovated Grand Army of the Republic (G.A.R.) Memorial Hall and Rotunda at the Chicago Cultural Center during a media opening of the space, Friday morning, March 25, 2022. Designed by Shepley, Rutan and Coolidge, the rooms were built in 1897 to pay tribute to Civil War veterans and their families. | Pat Nabong/Sun-Times

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Chicago Mayor Lori Lightfoot speaks at the newly renovated Grand Army of the Republic (G.A.R.) Memorial Hall and Rotunda at the Chicago Cultural Center during a media opening of the space, Friday morning, March 25, 2022. Designed by Shepley, Rutan and Coolidge, the rooms were built in 1897 to pay tribute to Civil War veterans and their families. | Pat Nabong/Sun-Times

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The newly renovated Grand Army of the Republic (G.A.R.) Memorial Hall and Rotunda at the Chicago Cultural Center is seen during a media opening of the space, Friday morning, March 25, 2022. Designed by Shepley, Rutan and Coolidge, the rooms were built in 1897 to pay tribute to Civil War veterans and their families. | Pat Nabong/Sun-Times

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T. Gunny Harboe, who oversaw the restoration project, holds a picture of his great grandfather, who served in the Civil War, at the newly renovated Grand Army of the Republic (G.A.R.) Memorial Hall and Rotunda at the Chicago Cultural Center during a media opening of the space, Friday morning, March 25, 2022. Designed by Shepley, Rutan and Coolidge, the rooms were built in 1897 to pay tribute to Civil War veterans and their families. | Pat Nabong/Sun-Times

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T. Gunny Harboe, who oversaw the restoration project, holds a Grand Army of the Republic pin owned by his great grandfather, who served in the Civil War, while Cultural Historian Emeritus for the City of Chicago Tim Samuelson reacts at the newly renovated Grand Army of the Republic (G.A.R.) Memorial Hall and Rotunda at the Chicago Cultural Center during a media opening of the space, Friday morning, March 25, 2022. Designed by Shepley, Rutan and Coolidge, the rooms were built in 1897 to pay tribute to Civil War veterans and their families. | Pat Nabong/Sun-Times

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The newly renovated Grand Army of the Republic (G.A.R.) Memorial Hall and Rotunda at the Chicago Cultural Center is seen during a media opening of the space, Friday morning, March 25, 2022. Designed by Shepley, Rutan and Coolidge, the rooms were built in 1897 to pay tribute to Civil War veterans and their families. | Pat Nabong/Sun-Times

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Visitors look at an exhibit about the Grand Army of the Republic at the newly renovated Grand Army of the Republic (G.A.R.) Memorial Hall and Rotunda at the Chicago Cultural Center during a media opening of the space, Friday morning, March 25, 2022. Designed by Shepley, Rutan and Coolidge, the rooms were built in 1897 to pay tribute to Civil War veterans and their families. | Pat Nabong/Sun-Times

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The newly renovated Grand Army of the Republic (G.A.R.) Memorial Hall and Rotunda at the Chicago Cultural Center is seen during a media opening of the space, Friday morning, March 25, 2022. Designed by Shepley, Rutan and Coolidge, the rooms were built in 1897 to pay tribute to Civil War veterans and their families. | Pat Nabong/Sun-Times

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The newly renovated Grand Army of the Republic (G.A.R.) Memorial Hall and Rotunda at the Chicago Cultural Center is seen during a media opening of the space, Friday morning, March 25, 2022. Designed by Shepley, Rutan and Coolidge, the rooms were built in 1897 to pay tribute to Civil War veterans and their families. | Pat Nabong/Sun-Times

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T. Gunny Harboe, who oversaw the restoration project, listens as Cultural Historian Emeritus for the City of Chicago Tim Samuelson speaks at the newly renovated Grand Army of the Republic (G.A.R.) Memorial Hall and Rotunda at the Chicago Cultural Center during a media opening of the space, Friday morning, March 25, 2022. Designed by Shepley, Rutan and Coolidge, the rooms were built in 1897 to pay tribute to Civil War veterans and their families. | Pat Nabong/Sun-Times

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Attorney Robert Hamilton walks with a friend, who prefers not to be named, at the newly renovated Grand Army of the Republic (G.A.R.) Memorial Hall and Rotunda at the Chicago Cultural Center during a media opening of the space, Friday morning, March 25, 2022. Designed by Shepley, Rutan and Coolidge, the rooms were built in 1897 to pay tribute to Civil War veterans and their families. | Pat Nabong/Sun-Times

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The newly renovated dome of the Grand Army of the Republic (G.A.R.) Memorial Hall and Rotunda at the Chicago Cultural Center in the Loop is seen in this photo, Friday morning, March 25, 2022. Designed by Shepley, Rutan and Coolidge, the rooms were built in 1897 to pay tribute to Civil War veterans and their families. | Pat Nabong/Sun-Times

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The cultural center was built in 1897, as the city’s first central public library. It has two stained-glass domes. The luminous Tiffany dome, with some 30,000 pieces of glass, was restored in 2008.

The G.A.R hall was built to honor Civil War veterans on the Union side.

“A place of camaraderie between those who survived, a place of memory for those who didn’t, a place of realization of what they were fighting for,” Samuelson said.

The names of famous Civil War battle sites are chiseled and gold-leafed in the hall’s green marble walls.

In the 1930s, the dome began to leak. So it was covered over with clay tile and copper, extinguishing the outside natural light. Decades of grime dimmed the glass in hues of turquoise, rose, garnet and countless others.

The cigar-smoking Civil War veterans probably didn’t help.

“It had tons of soiling for many, many years. It looked really, really dingy,” said Gunny Harboe, the architect in charge of the restoration project.

In the 1970s, the patina meticulously applied to the decorative plaster ceiling in the hall was erased with gray paint. It was likely an effort to update the space, but like bell-bottoms and leisure suits, the decor soon looked dated.

“With the way it looked after that 1970s renovation, nobody looked at it at all,” Samuelson said.

He said it sometimes takes “fresh eyes from another era” to realize the beauty of what was lost — or, in this case, buried.

“Everybody loves a story of buried treasure,” Samuelson said. “Most people think of shovels and pirates and digging up things.”

Lightfoot said arts and culture are vital to bringing back tourists to downtown and the neighborhoods, with the worst of the pandemic appearing to recede.

“My friends, we are back,” she said.