A church sold its old stained glass windows for $6,000. It turned out they were rare Tiffany glass.

High above the pews of the colossal church at 50th and Baltimore, two rose-shaped stained glass windows sat virtually untouched for 118 years. No one seemed to know they were especially valuable.

Then, in the summer of 2022, Emmanuel Christian Center purchased the sprawling old building from Hickman Temple A.M.E. Church, its owner since 1972. The new pastor, William Brownlee, Sr., hoped to build a bright, modern worship space where he could broadcast highly-produced services to a national parish. Though the church was recently the subject of a pitched preservation battle, it was not a designated historic site.

Since it was built for St. Paul’s Presbyterian Church in 1901, the 15,000-square-foot space had deteriorated in grandeur. A massive steel brace had been installed to hold up one sanctuary wall; the roof leaked and the bell tower was crumbling.

Emmanuel Christian, a 400-member church, bought the Gothic Revival building for $1.7 million, according to deed records. Restoring the dilapidated interior, some of which was moldy and rotting, seemed like more trouble than it was worth, Brownlee said in an interview. So he directed contractors to remove the dark wooden pews, the carved wainscoting, the wood trim, the flooring, the tables, chairs, windows and light fixtures.

When an architectural salvager offered to take more than a dozen stained-glass windows and other furnishings off his hands in the fall, he was glad to make a deal. He sold the whole lot, including the two rose windows, for $6,000.

“My vision was just: complete. Get it done,” said Brownlee, 36, who grew up in West Philly and was raised by Bishop James McNeal Jr., an internationally-known Pentecostal minister. Brownlee described Emmanuel Christian, which he founded in 2017, as a non-denominational “very energized, hyper, God-loving church.”

Paul Brown, the architectural salvager who purchased the windows from Brownlee, said the rose windows took about a month of painstaking work to pry out of the stone tracery. Afterwards, he duct-taped them in packing blankets and called Freeman’s, the Philadelphia-based auction house, to ask how to repair the cracked and loose glass.

That’s when he learned they were rare Tiffany pieces.

“If no one said they were Tiffany, you sure couldn’t tell it by the dirty glass,” said Brown, who is based in Lancaster.

Freeman’s discovered that the grimy leaded glass was crafted for St. Paul’s in the early 1900s by Tiffany Studios. Louis Comfort Tiffany, the president of the studio famous for its glasswork and lamps, was also the first design director of his father’s jewelry company, Tiffany & Co. Freeman’s believes it’s also possible that John Wanamaker, of the Philadelphia department store, had a role in commissioning the windows; his name was included in St. Paul’s entry on Tiffany’s commission list.

“To find another Tiffany rose, let alone two — it’s almost unheard of,” said Tim Andreadis, head of design at Freeman’s. He said it was unlikely that another such window would come on the market “in our lifetime.”

Freeman’s listed the two rose windows on Brown’s behalf at the end of April, with an estimated sale price between $150,000 and $250,000 each.

At 50th and Baltimore, Emmanuel Christian’s renovations had long troubled some neighbors and local preservationists, who viewed the process as closer to demolition than repair.

“He proceeds to destroy the place,” Amy Lambert, the president of the University City Historical Society, said. “I think of the incredible nature of the building...how do you not see that you have something really special here?”

But even the preservationists said they were not aware that the windows were Tiffany. When the University City Historical Society nominated the church for historic status in 2020, the original 35-page submission did not mention anything about Tiffany windows.

Lambert said the group, fearing an imminent sale, threw together the nomination so quickly that they did not do in-depth research in St. Paul’s archives.

In any case, the nomination didn’t move forward. The pastor at the time, Rev. Gregory Nelson, vigorously opposed it, arguing it would lower the potential sale price because of the limits it would place on new owners. In response the Historical Society withdrew the nomination in 2022.

“[A few] white people cannot decide the fate of a historical African American congregation that’s been in this location for 47 years,” Nelson told Axios at the time. He declined to comment for this article.

Lots of churches in Philly find themselves in a bind when it comes to maintaining grand and expensive historic buildings, some of which have weathered decades of deferred maintenance and are now in need of serious investment. Church membership is also declining across the country.

Brown, the architectural salvager, said he didn’t know that the windows were Tiffany, either —he just thought it would be a shame if they were sledgehammered out, which the contractor was pledging to do.

“Usually by the time I get there, nobody cares anymore, there’s nothing to care about,” said Brown, who has been in the salvage business for 30 years.

He estimated that he has invested over $100,000 to prepare the windows for auction; at his expense, Freeman’s brought them to a special restoration firm in upstate New York, which spent three months cleaning and restoring them. They will go up for auction on May 18.

During a recent tour of the property, Brownlee said he remains optimistic about his ultimate vision: to build a recreation center in one of the former chapels, establish a charter school in the basement, and host services for 1,000 congregants in the main sanctuary. After learning about the history of the building, he also wants to work with the community to preserve it, he said.

With the help of University City District’s Project Rehab, Emmanuel Christian has now secured a permit needed to fix an unsafe tower and applied for some grant funding. The Historical Society, with Brownlee’s support, has resubmitted the historic nomination to the city.

But now the congregation is out of money. In March, Brownlee launched a GoFundMe for $50,000, in part to purchase new stained glass windows.

Inside the stone church today, construction is suspended. Paint buckets, roller brushes, and piles of debris are scattered throughout; electrical wires hang from the ceilings. The initial renovations may ultimately have to be redone because they were made without permits, according to Project Rehab. Some of the windows have been temporarily covered with ill-fitting vinyl panes.

In the gable ends of the sanctuary, one rose-shaped hole faces east and one faces west, their petals filled with plywood.