God may have created the heavens, but Lovely Lane United Methodist Church is restoring them.
High on scaffolding above the sanctuary, artists are putting the finishing touches on a 360-degree mural of the night sky, complete with billowing clouds and faraway constellations.
This 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 and an anchor of Baltimore's Old Goucher Historic District.
For the past nine months, congregation members have been worshipping in a chapel on the grounds while the interior of the main sanctuary is restored.
The scaffolding is due to come down this week, and the construction team is cautiously optimistic that the sanctuary could be ready for services by late fall.
When it reopens, it will be the first time in 100 years that the interior has looked the way Stanford White intended. "Everything is being taken back to the 1880s design," said restoration architect Roger Katzenberg, of Kann & Associates. "Nothing has been radically altered."
White "made all the right decisions -- placing man in the context of the heavens," said historic paint consultant Matthew Mosca. "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 the congregation that began meeting in 1772 near Redwood and Calvert streets. 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.
Kann & Associates, a specialist in historic preservation, is guiding the restoration effort. Henry H. Lewis is the general contractor. Hayles & Howe was responsible for the plasterwork. Thomas Moore Studios of Baltimore is the painter.
The mural covers an elliptical dome ceiling above the sanctuary. It depicts the night sky as it appeared at 3 a.m. on 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 of being in a building that has no roof, and is therefore open to the sky. The suggestion is 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 tile roof replaced one of asphalt shingle that was put on in the 1980s -- a temporary measure -- and already needed replacement.
Before the mural could 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.
Hayles & Howe applied a new coat of plaster over lathe. Moore Studios began re-creating the mural, based on photos and other historic documents.
It's a painstaking process to replicate the heavens. The sky is painted with acrylic latex. The stars are made with a metallic substance containing bronze powder. 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 said the paint work is excellent. He noted that the painters are improvising elements such as clouds yet staying true to the spirit of the original mural. They've 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."
