BARBERTON — For Rex Crain, property manager and member at First Baptist Church of Barberton, preserving the 120-year-old building’s original stained-glass windows has been a personal mission for the past several years.
“I told the church council, [if] you like these stained-glass windows, you’re not going to have them long if you don’t do something,” Crain said of the aging condition of the windows and frames.
After months of conversations, Crain said, the council reached out to the congregation for support of the estimated $150,000 project to remove, refurbish and reframe the 36 windows. The response, he said, was phenomenal, with members in some cases “adopting” a particular window…