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The Jefferson Hotel opened in 1895, a creation of Lewis Ginter and the New York firm Carrère & Hastings. In 1901, a devastating fire consumed much of the building, and the iconic marble statue of Thomas Jefferson, sculpted by Edward Valentine, was heroically rescued—wrapped in mattresses and carried to safety by hotel staff.

A photograph that stops someone mid-scroll, that makes them wonder about the person in the frame, that sparks a question or a conversation—that photograph has done something powerful.

A conversation with architectural historian Richard Guy Wilson recently illuminated the complex web of cultural influences that shaped Louis Comfort Tiffany's celebrated fascination with the Orient. Wilson, author of "Mysticism, Alchemy, and Architecture: Designing Laurelton Hall," offered insights that extend far beyond the individual artist to reveal a broader intellectual cosmology of 19th-century America.

In the annals of American art preservation, few stories are as compelling as Hugh McCain's personal connection to Louis Comfort Tiffany and his subsequent mission to save the master's work from destruction. Through a remarkable interview conducted by Les Anderson, we gain intimate access to McCain's memories—not just as a scholar and museum director, but as one of the last people to know Tiffany personally and witness the splendor of Laurelton Hall before its tragic demise.

Between 1898 and 1933—spanning thirty-five years until Tiffany's death—Arlington Street Church commissioned what would become the largest collection of single-themed Tiffany windows in the world. Sixteen magnificent panels, conceived and executed as a unified narrative, demonstrate what becomes possible when patronage extends beyond individual commissions to embrace a complete artistic vision.

Today, The Dream Garden remains in situ at its original home in Philadelphia's Curtis Center, its 100,000+ pieces of glass catching and transforming light just as Tiffany intended. Visitors come from all over the world, just as Bok hoped they would more than a century ago.

In the 1880s, Louis Comfort Tiffany lokking at this 700-year-old tradition would asked: “What if we could bring this magic into people’s daily lives, and into their homes?” The question lead Tiffany to reimagined the medieval trinity for a new world.