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The 1998 Restoration - "Our Parish, Our Future"What began as "just a simple paint job" for the interior of our church, grew into a major project of preserving our past in order to hand it on to our future generations. The parish hired a restoration consultant and began months of study. The structure was evaluated from the crawl space to the bell tower to insure integrity. The building was tuck pointed and waterproofed. Then the interior was addressed. We had to understand the original construction (steel tie rods and lack of ornamentation). We wanted to discover as much as we could about the building in its earliest days. Layers of paint were removed. Old photographs were studied. Early stencils were discovered. Knowing we needed to work with the colors present in the windows, the committee was ready to follow architectural principles and contemporary liturgical guidelines. We identified a three-fold focus: restoration, preservation, and conservation. The wide-open expanse of wall and ceiling space needed to be "brought to scale." This meant creating panels and adding dimension. The darker colors are placed low to the floor and the lighter colors rise from there. The most neutral colors are used in the largest spaces. The highlight or accent colors were drawn from the windows. Blue, teal, and terra cotta were used. When work was completed, twenty-five colors had been mixed to bring this project together. The stencil work you see in the church today had been lost and was reintroduced to the sanctuary and narthex (entries). The apse was painted to remind one of the stars of heaven. In the tradition of painting, the artists placed all the starts except one, the larger unique star that is placed on the eastern side of the dome. The is the "Morning Star" or Christ star. References can be found in the Advent readings, the Exultet at the Easter Vigil and in the book of Revelation. It has been tradition that the pastor places this star. That tradition was followed here in our church. In addition to the historical painting, new carpet was added and the pews and kneelers were recovered. Sanctuary lighting was installed and a focal area was created in front of the altar to serve the needs of weddings and children's liturgies.
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