Stained Glass Window – Part 1

Lovely though it is, the stained glass window in our ballroom is much more than a pretty face. Since 1911 this beautiful curiosity has been a source of pride for lodge members and a puzzler for others, and most people are unaware that it imparts two intriguing stories — of the window’s creator and its subject.

The window was one of several completed in 1911-1912 by Helen Ferne (Goolsby) Slimp, a woman who is remembered as much for her tenacity as for her broad artistic talent.

Helen Slimp was a Virginia-born orphan who moved to San Antonio, unaccompanied, as soon as she aged out of institutional care. With talent honed during her orphanage days she soon landed a job as a stained glass designer at San Antonio Art Glass, a purveyor of plate glass and mirrors. Slimp was only 21 years old when she was hired to create the 10 by 9 foot Hermann Sons window; not only was she the designer and manufacturer, she oversaw the installation. The Hermann Sons window was likely completed at the same time as several church windows, most still in existence, which was an impressive start to an art career that would not be fully launched for another two decades. Slimp claimed that her first work was her best, the window in Centerpoint United Methodist Church, a masterpiece loved by the congregation because the eyes of Jesus follow you.

Helen married oil baron Chester Slimp in 1913, joined high society, and rose to prominence as an artist by the early 1930s. Her name was eventually so recognizable that a 1934 ad for Joske’s department store advertised a sale on “Helen Slimp’s famous blue bonnet prints”. She was a contemporary and friend of art patron Marion Koogler McNay, artist Eleanor Onderdonk, and sculptor Gutzan Borglum (the Mount Rushmore sculptor who spent several years in San Antonio). Slimp exhibited her work at La Villita and the Witte Museum, and often donated work for charitable auctions. In 1955 she was named the Witte Museum Artist of the Year. Several Slimp paintings and sketches are in the collections of the McNay Art Museum and Witte Museum.

From 1932, Helen and Chester Slimp lived their days at 1746 Lockhill Selma Road, the house once thought of as the “castle” of Castle Hills. Helen died in 1990 at age 105, many years after Chester’s death. Today the former Slimp home is The Veranda event center.

The stained glass in the Hermann Sons ballroom is original to the building but is not in its original location. The window was moved to its present location in 1938 during a building expansion in which a new exterior facade was added, enclosing the original face of the building. A second smaller stained glass window was installed over the main doorway during the expansion. The Slimp window was restored in 2017, and the smaller stained glass window was restored in 2022, both with money raised through donations and other fundraising efforts.

Helen Slimp visited Hermann Sons one last time in June 1990 shortly before her 100th birthday.

Since 1912 Hermann the Cherusker has watched over S. St. Mary’s Street (originally named Garden Street) and greeted countless members and guests who have visited through the generations. Who is Hermann, and why is he standing on a bird? Next Throwback Thursday!