{"id":3489,"date":"2018-09-13T10:17:39","date_gmt":"2018-09-13T14:17:39","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/nationalaltarguildassociation.org\/?p=3489"},"modified":"2020-09-01T12:09:21","modified_gmt":"2020-09-01T16:09:21","slug":"the-painted-churches-of-texas","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/nationalaltarguildassociation.org\/?p=3489","title":{"rendered":"NAGA Triennial 2018: The Painted Churches Of Texas"},"content":{"rendered":"

When you look at an oyster, would you ever imagine something as beautiful as a pearl could dwell within? That\u2019s how I feel about the painted churches! Plain on the outside; amazingly beautiful on the inside: surely these churches inspire us to want to beautiful on the inside too.<\/p>\n

According to the Houston Chronicle<\/i>, Texas hill country has more than 20 \u201cpainted\u201d churches. When Roman Catholic Czech and German immigrants arrived in the 1800s, many settled in central Texas. Their first priorities were to build churches and schools. In an effort to make their new churches feel more like the ancient churches of their homelands, these early settlers painted the walls, altars and arches of their simple wooden sanctuaries in colorful patterns and clever tromp l\u2019oeil images. These buildings came to be known as the Painted Churches of Texas. Our tour guide, Wanda Stanzel, is a devout convert to Catholicism, and her tour narrative was factually and spiritually detailed.<\/span><\/p>\n

Tour Welcome \u2014 St. James<\/span><\/h4>\n

\"\"<\/a>On Wednesday, we had the opportunity to experience a \u201cfield trip\u201d to four painted churches. Our day started at St. James Episcopal Church in La Grange \u2014 not a painted church but an American adaptation of the English Queen Anne style. It was designed by Richard M. Upjohn of New York and completed in 1856. The St. James parish family treated us to coffee and kolaches, followed by a Eucharist celebrated by The Rev. Eric Hungerford, Rector of St. James. As July 11 is the Feast of St. Benedict, the homily by the Rev. Bill King (Chaplain for NAGA Triennial) focused on St. Benedict\u2019s rule of prayer (see next page.) Church organist Jim Holmes, a longtime church member and La Grange native, gave an interesting talk on the history of the church, its architecture, and its organ.<\/span><\/p>\n

1 Nativity ofMary, Blessed Virgin<\/span><\/h4>\n

\"\"<\/a>\"\"<\/a>The first church we visited was the Nativity of Mary, Blessed Virgin, in High Hill known as \u201cthe Faberg\u00e9 egg\u201d or \u201cthe queen\u201d of Texas\u2019 painted churches. Built in 1906, the red-brick Gothic Revival church is packed to the gills with statues of saints, an elaborate altar, a chandelier, a pipe organ, Stations of the Cross imported from Italy, and  <\/span>a marble reproduction of Michelango\u2019s Pieta enhanced with paint. The apse dome is awash in a subtle periwinkle blue, accented in gold leaf. Tromp l\u2019oeil abounds; the faux marble was painted with turkey feathers. Intricately detailed stained-glass windows glow in the afternoon sun. A major conservation and restoration project was completed in 2011. Following our tour, we enjoyed a delicious lunch, prepared by chef Garrett Pettit from Sengelmann\u2019s Hall in Schulenburg, in St. Mary\u2019s historic wooden parish hall, thankfully air-conditioned.<\/p>\n

2 St. Mary\u2019s, Church of the Assumption<\/span><\/h4>\n

\"\"\"\"<\/a>Homage to St. Mary continued at St. Mary\u2019s, Church of the Assumption, located in Praha. The church was built in 1885 with hand-cut, locally-quarried stone. The antique chandelier hanging in the nave, made in the former Czechoslovakia, dates back to the 1800s. An extensive restoration was undertaken in 2015. The walls were restored to their original warm green color, and the beautifully hand-painted ceiling of the church was left intact. It is the work of artist Gottfried Flury (1864-1936) from Oensingen, Switzerland. He also painted the walls with wildflowers and angels.<\/p>\n

3 St. John the Baptist<\/span><\/h4>\n

\"\"\"\"<\/a>\"\"<\/a>The third church on our tour was St. John the Baptist in Ammansville, one of four totally Catholic communities in Fayette County (along with Praha, Hostyn and Dubina). This was one of my two favorite churches, the other being the last church we visited. The current building is the third church on the site, the first being demolished by a hurricane in1909 and the second by fire in 1917. Area residents fortunately rescued six statues and a crucifix. Those items were placed in a newly-constructed church that was dedicated in December 1919. The outside of St. John\u2019s is plain white Carpenter Gothic in style, but the inside is a big surprise \u2014 the walls are a beautiful shade of dusty rose. The building\u2019s interior is a blend of cultures. St. John\u2019s has decorative elements floor to ceiling, per the Germans, but the windows are clear with stained-glass panes at the top, to let the light in for the Czechs. The men sat on one side of the church; the women on the other. The men\u2019s side still has hooks on the pews where they hung their hats. The side altar on the women\u2019s side features St. Anne teaching St. Mary; the side altar on the men\u2019s side features the Holy Family. An interesting tidbit about the inscriptions (in Czech) on the windows: DAROVALI means the window was donated by a couple; DAROVALA means the donor was a single woman, and DAROVAL means the donor was a man.<\/p>\n

4 Sts. Cyril and Methodius<\/span><\/h4>\n

\"\"<\/a>\"\"<\/a>The final church we visited was Sts. Cyril and Methodius in Dubina. I was not familiar with these saints, but learned that Cyril (826-869) and Methodius (815\u2013885) were two brothers who were Byzantine Christian theologians and missionaries, known as the \u201cApostles to the Slavs.\u201d Dubina was the first settlement in Texas to be founded entirely by Czech-Moravians. The original church, built in 1876, was destroyed by a hurricane in 1909. The new church was constructed in 1912. The exterior is white Carpenter Gothic, topped by an iron cross salvaged from the remains of the old church. Apparently the same blueprints were used for both St. John\u2019s (Ammansville) and Sts. Cyril & Methodius (Dubina), as the exteriors are almost identical. The interior of Sts. Cyril and Methodius is a mishmash of folk art and elaborate baroque paintings and statuary, yet somehow it all works together. Religious statuary is found throughout the church with elaborately carved wood Stations of the Cross on the walls.The white walls feature folk art stenciling in vivid colors. The ceiling is robin\u2019s-egg-blue with beautiful stenciling and hand-painted angels, stars and floral vines, with an emblem of the parish in the central nave vault above the apse. We were honored to have a personal history of the church delivered by Judge Ed Janecka of Fayette County. He told us that in 1952 parishioners\"\"<\/a> decided the old church needed updating, so they painted over the brilliant colors and bountiful illustrations that covered the walls and ceiling. A few years later he noticed that when the sun streamed in at a certain angle, he could faintly see colors and designs beneath the whitewashed walls. His dad told him what had happened. \u201cMy dad was one of those who painted over it, and it just hurt him to put that paint over those angels,\u201d Janecka said. \u201cBack in the \u201850s, after World War II, people really wanted modern. They just wanted to get rid of some of the old past.Our grandfathers built the things, our fathers destroyed a lot of them, and we\u2019re now trying to repair.\u201d In 1983 the church\u2019s parishioners decided to restore the walls and ceilings. Thus began a long and tedious restoration process, undertaken each Sunday after services by the parishioners themselves. I loved this church!<\/p>\n

Tour Closing \u2014 Sengelmann Dance Hall<\/span><\/h4>\n

Our day continued with a visit to the historic Sengelmann Dance Hall inSchulenburg. Built in 1894, this men\u2019s-only saloon was a popular stopping-off point for travelers between Houston and San Antonio, standing as a cultural hub in downtown Schulenburg until it closed in the 1940s. Dana Harper, a Houston native, bought the historic building in 2007. Few residents of Schulenburg realized it had once been a dance hall \u2014 it was last a Western Auto store. Fortunately, much of the hall\u2019s original architectural features remained intact. The original plank flooring, carved marble pillars (with bullet holes from brawls) and pressed tin ceilings were in great shape, and the upstairs was virtually untouched. When Dana had the paint removed, to everyone\u2019s surprise it exposed the original decorative stenciling on the walls, now prominently featured alongside the original woodwork. Carpenters meticulously recreated the original mahogany bar from old photographs. Sengelmann\u2019s re-opened in 2009, and was awarded a National Preservation Award in 2010. NAGA past-president Katrina Packard graciously hosted our group to \u201cheavy hors d\u2019oeuvres\u201d at the dance hall.\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

Throughout the day, I was constantly being reminded of all the themes of our Triennial program \u2013 hospitality, liturgical art, prayer, and making the ordinary extraordinary. Was this confluence of themes by design, or coincidental, or a \u201cGod thing?\u201d Maybe a little bit of all three, but I think mostly the latter!<\/p>\n

Peggy Curlin, Diocese of North Carolina, Christ Church, Charlotte<\/i><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

When you look at an oyster, would you ever imagine something as beautiful as a pearl could dwell within? That\u2019s how I feel about the painted churches […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":3509,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[13,17],"tags":[97,113],"class_list":["post-3489","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-community","category-convention","tag-community-2","tag-convention-2"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/nationalaltarguildassociation.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3489","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/nationalaltarguildassociation.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/nationalaltarguildassociation.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nationalaltarguildassociation.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nationalaltarguildassociation.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=3489"}],"version-history":[{"count":27,"href":"https:\/\/nationalaltarguildassociation.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3489\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":4069,"href":"https:\/\/nationalaltarguildassociation.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3489\/revisions\/4069"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nationalaltarguildassociation.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/3509"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/nationalaltarguildassociation.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=3489"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nationalaltarguildassociation.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=3489"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nationalaltarguildassociation.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=3489"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}