Bringing Home Wakefield’s Missing WWI-Era Windows

In 1923, the Wakefield Memorial Community Building was opened to the public as a living memorial of the sacrifices and service of Wakefield’s youth during World War I. This large brick structure featured an Olympic-sized swimming pool, meeting rooms for the American Legion Geroux No. 11 Post and Wakefield Women’s Club, a banquet and dance hall, a gymnasium used by Wakefield High School prior to the current gym being built in 1934, and a 1,200 seat theater with accommodations for both films and live productions.

Inside of this theater, 32 leaded stained glass windows were commissioned by the Wakefield City Commission, produced by the company Mosaic Art Glass of Milwaukee, Wisconsin. These windows featured six picture windows featuring branches of the US Military, six identical large decorative panels, and 24 narrow side decorative panels. Following almost a century, the Wakefield Memorial Community Building was demolished in the summer of 2010. During the demolition, what remained of these windows were trucked off and put in storage for later renovation for a new building. The new building never panned out, and the windows were believed to be lost.

In 2024, it was brought up that the location of the windows - which had been missing for nearly 15 years - were located. They were slated to be sold and scrapped due to their condition. After two years of negotiations and work, the windows were officially donated to our museum. It is the goal of our museum to restore the main windows as possible, with the support of our community. It was decided at the July 2026 meeting that we would be restoring the Army Air Corps and American Legion Geroux Post No. 11 windows first, which are expected to return to Wakefield in early 2027. The windows are being restored at Kevin O’Brien Stained Glass in Rollingstone, Minnesota, where they are currently stored.

We are currently asking the community for assistance with these windows. If you are interested in donating financially to the restoration of these windows, you can mail a check to PO Box 114, Wakefield, MI 49968 or fill out our donation form on the Donate tab on our website. Please ensure your donation is clearly marked “WMCB Windows” and that you’ve noted any specific windows you want to contribute to. We are also requesting the community’s ideas for how to display these windows once completed. Ideas can be shared with us via mail, email, phone calls, or by just stopping inside our museum.