This quaint 1887 rural Roman Catholic Church, nestled on the green of a tiny Connecticut hamlet is being made whole again through the efforts of John Canning Painting & Conservation Studios and architect Roger Clarke, AIA. The church was moved from next to the Post Office (across the street) to its present location in 1973 when the parish purchased the rectory property.
The limits of a modest budget did not deter John Canning from providing an investigation to uncover historic decoration schemes and their assigned periods. Armed with no less than four identifiable periods of decoration, and evidence of Stations of the Cross "murals," informed recommendations and decisions were made as to how best to proceed.
Knowing the limited resources of the church, John set out to devise a decoration scheme that would reinstate the second period of decoration, which included 3 distinct, complementary stencil patterns (unique to this church), combined with striping, and gilded details. He extended this design to frame the stained glass windows and repeated the framing around the newly designed, painted Stations of the Cross murals.
The stations are grouped into four triptychs, bordered by stained glass windows with a single station preceding the two groupings on each side of the church. The murals were painted in the studio on thin canvas and applied to the walls with reversible adhesive. The stencil and striped borders were added directly on the wall using oil base paints, and the St. Alphonsus narrative for each station was added in Old English style lettering. In addition, the wainscoting had been woodgrained, which was a typical style of the period. These elements were cleaned, in-painted and re-varnished.
Plaster statues of the Virgin Mary and St. Joseph with the baby Jesus were repaired, painted, glazed and gilded before being returned to their niches.
In the apse, two new, vertical stained glass windows flanking the altar were designed by Robert Pinard and built by Cummings Studios of North Adams, MA. To compliment the new windows and integrate the area, John designed an aluminum leaf treatment with transparent glaze and a fleur de lis stencil pattern -- a traditional symbol of the Virgin Mary, it is also a symbol of the Holy Trinity making it appropriate for the space.
The church, which seats 200, will have its official rededication on December 30, 2001.
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