In 1893, Louis C. Tiffany created a chapel for the World’s Columbian Exposition in Chicago to promote his newly founded firm, Tiffany Glass and Decorating Company. Showcasing shimmering, Byzantine-inspired glass mosaics and luminous stained-glass windows, it won many awards for design.
Following the fair, the chapel was dismantled, and later purchased and gifted to the Cathedral of St. John the Divine in New York. In 1916, discovering it had suffered water damage, Tiffany had the chapel removed and reinstalled at his home, Laurelton Hall. After his death in 1933, portions were sold, and later in 1957, a devastating fire damaged what remained. Jeannette McKean, founder of the Charles Hosmer Morse Museum in Florida, visited the site and ultimately purchased the components of the chapel.
In 1996, the Morse Museum assembled a conservation team to begin the restoration. After more than 100 years, it was reopened to the public in April 1999. Tiffany’s spectacular Field of Lilies window can be seen in the reconstructed baptistery of the chapel.
