St. Mary's German Village

St. Mary’s Catholic Church (1868) located in German Village Columbus, Ohio is a gem. The historic parish was graced with vibrant sanctuary murals by Gerhardt Lamers and nineteenth century trompe l’oeil decoration in the nave ceilings and walls. The first generation artwork (as seen in historic photographs) was ornate, delicate, and skillfully painted.

In the twentieth century, St. Mary’s experienced two repaintings of the nave. The most recent campaign simplified the artwork, eliminating finer details and shifting the palette to very soft colors which were discordant with the sanctuary artwork.

St. Mary’s suffered significant structural damage in 2017, which required the ceiling to be completely removed. EverGreene was contracted by Martin Painting, David Meleca Architects and St. Mary’s to reinstate the historic liturgical artistry program after the ceiling removal. Our process began with research based on the historic photographs, historic precedent, and remaining historic elements at St. Mary’s. The next step was to map out the artwork and share the proposed replication designs with the team. Once our designs were approved we suggested several palettes in harmony with the Lamers murals.

EverGreene’s in-house artists replicated the lost artwork on canvas in our Brooklyn Studio and collaborated with Martin Painting to install panels on site. Our stilled artisans carefully touched up and hand painted areas to seamlessly integrate the new artwork into the architecture.