Workers install sections of tempered glass to the Veterans Memorial Coliseum’s stained glass window in Cedar Rapids on Thursday, December 12, 1974. A four-month project to protect the window was declared complete on this day.

The 24-foot-high-by 20-foot-wide window, honoring veterans from the Revolutionary War to World War I, was designed by Iowa artist Grant Wood (1891-1942) in 1927. Wood later went to Europe to oversee its construction and arranged for its placement and completion in Cedar Rapids in 1929. By the early 1970s, the window was considered priceless and no company approached by the city council would insure it. A $31,000 protection project, done in semi-secrecy to prevent possible vandalism prior to its completion, began in September, 1974. The work added metal framework to both sides of the window to support three-eighths-inch-thick tempered glass. The project was paid by federal revenue sharing funds.

The window was repaired and cleaned in March-June, 1991.

Although flood waters last June did not quite reach the window, damage in the form of bows and small cracks in the glass were incurred.