I'm on the board of a private library in an old mansion on East 79th Street.
The house (a 50 footer) was built in 1918, the library bought it 20 years
later, inserted a free-standing, 12-deck bookstack in the rear half, but
nominally preserved the front spaces - a big stairhall, a large parlor, etc.

I remember first coming into the building at age 18 (1968), standing at the
bottom of the big, square, stone stairhall thinking "hey, this is sort of
dark".  No sconces on the wall, no hanging chandelier, no source of
illumination for this space, about 20 x 20 and maybe 50 feet high, ending in
a plain-jane flat white ceiling - so plain it was sort of dissonant with the
other highly decorated finishes.

Only 10 years ago,  I finally found an historic photograph of the stairhall -
hey!  It showed a grand swath of leaded glass, rising in the center like a
tent!  It was covered up at some later time!  I went to the roof to look down
from the outside, but that was completely covered by a sealed swath of
corrugated metal.

When I became a trustee, two years ago, I knew I would finally be happy if I
could find out what happened to the skylight and, perhaps, raise the money to
recreate or restore it.  Last year I succeeded Jean Phifer as Building
Committee Chair, and began planning a campaign.  Yesterday, John McKeown, our
resourceful super, opened up the roof, and he and I looked in to see - the
entire, original skylight, in 98%-perfect condition.  Howard Carter was no
happier than I was.

Love to all,  Christopher Gray