BALTIMORE Sky's the limit as church restores historical mural

A historical church is undergoing a divine restoration.
THE BALTIMORE SUN
BALTIMORE -- God may have created the heavens, but Lovely Lane United Methodist Church restored them.
High above the sanctuary, artists recently put the finishing touches on a 360-degree mural of the night sky, with billowing clouds and faraway constellations.
The celestial ceiling is a signature feature of the 1887 landmark, considered the mother church of American Methodism.
Its re-creation represents a key milestone in the 23-year campaign to restore the church, the first designed by noted architect Stanford White. For months, congregation members have worshipped in a chapel on the grounds while the interior of the main sanctuary has undergone restoration.
Scaffolding came down
The scaffolding above the sanctuary came down last month, and the construction team was cautiously optimistic that the sanctuary could be ready for services by late fall.
When the church reopens, it will be the first time in 100 years that the interior has looked the way White intended. "Everything is being taken back to the 1880s design," said restoration architect Roger Katzenberg, of Kann & amp; Associates. "Nothing has been radically altered."
White "made all the right decisions -- placing man in the context of the heavens," historical paint consultant Matthew Mosca said. "When the sanctuary is restored, the building will once again be a national treasure."
The church at 2200 St. Paul St. is the fifth building of a congregation that began meeting in 1772. The St. Paul Street building was begun in 1884 as the centennial monument to the founding of American Methodism in 1784.
Lovely Lane's first pastor, Francis Asbury, was elected the first bishop of the Methodist Episcopal Church in America at its inaugural convention, which was held at Lovely Lane Meeting House. That's why Lovely Lane is called the mother church of American Methodism.
The mural
The mural covers an elliptical dome ceiling above the sanctuary. It depicts the night sky as it appeared at 3 a.m. Nov. 6, 1887 -- the day the church was dedicated. One side shows the dawn about to break, the other side looks more like dusk.
For visitors, the mural gives the effect that there is nothing between them and the heavens -- and that they are that much closer to God.
This is actually the fourth depiction of heaven at Lovely Lane. The 1887 version was repainted around 1900 and then covered in the 1930s by a painted canvas, with stars stenciled on.
According to Katzenberg, it was unusual for a church ceiling to depict the heavens.
"This particular motif was popular at the time, especially in theaters, but as far as churches were concerned, it's something of a novelty," he said.
For his first church design, White "was trying to break the mold of a traditional church, with pews and balconies that created more of a theatrical environment," Katzenberg said. "It was more like a theater than a church."
The mural needed restoration because the ceiling had been damaged by leaks in the years since the canvas surface was applied. The church put on a new terra cotta-tile roof in 2001, protecting the interior and clearing the way for the ceiling to be restored.
The artists and historians peeled away the canvas to see where the ceiling needed repair and what they could learn about the earlier murals.
A new coat of plaster was applied over lathe before painters began re-creating the mural, based on photos and other historical documents.
It was a painstaking process. The original position of each star was carefully recorded and then transposed to the new plaster surface. One of the final images to go back up was a depiction of the Milky Way.
Mosca noted that the painters improvised elements such as clouds yet stayed true to the spirit of the original mural. They even replicated a row of flames around the lower edge of the dome. "The colors that were in the ceiling in 1887 are the colors that they're using today. It's really going to give a sense of dusk and dawn."
Cost of project
With a cost of $1.2 million, the sanctuary restoration is the most expensive single phase of the church repair project. The entire project will cost between $5 million and $6 million. Money has come from a variety of sources, including the France-Merrick Foundation, a large private bequest and tax credits for historical preservation from the state of Maryland.
There was never any question that the congregation would restore the heavens, said the Rev. Nancy Nedwell, Lovely Lane's pastor.
"We're doing it because it's the right thing to do," she said.