Two stories:

Emily at Holy Whapping has a post up about the redesign/restoration of Sacred Heart Church in Peoria – rather amazing.

And then, from down South –

St. Mary’s Church in Helena, Arkansas had a mural on its back wall, painted in 1935. Not many people liked it then, or later. It was covered up (by cloth) and left to fester. But then, in 1970, a parishioner saw it:

Beauchamp loved the mural at first sight and knew instinctively it was special so when talk of painting over the mural began, she was devastated. In 1970 she turned to Dr. Jean Knowlton, an art history professor at what is now Phillips Community College of the University of Arkansas in Helena.

Beauchamp brought Knowlton to see the mural and the professor discovered the initials "CQ + DQ" near the bottom of the mural on the right side. Because the mural was covered for so many years, its history had been lost. It was this discovery that initiated Beauchamp’s fierce 36-year battle to save the mural and persuade parishioners and pastors alike to appreciate the beauty of the original artwork.

Beauchamp said Knowlton researched the initials and thought it might be highly acclaimed artist Charles F. Quest and his wife, Dorothy.

For two months the duo searched and finally found the Quests in Tryon, N.C., where Charles was very ill and Dorothy was caring for him. She confirmed that her husband had painted the mural at St. Mary Church. In fact, it was Quest’s first among many commissions to paint murals, including one from Cardinal Joseph Ritter to paint a replica of Diego Velasquez’s "Christ Crucified" over the altar at the old cathedral in St. Louis.

snip

Beauchamp said Norton Arts found in an analysis of original paint chips taken from the mural that the Quests had mixed mica with the "casein" (milk byproduct used by the ancient Egyptians as a binder) paint, which caused a subtle luminous effect on the wall.

"Mrs. Quest said she stayed on her knees for months. They ordered the pigments from a place in New York City and she ground everyone of them with mortar and pestle and she mixed it with … buttermilk and eggs in from the farm every day and that was done exactly like the early Christian days," Beauchamp said.

Adding to the interest…the church building itself was a very early design project of Charles Eames:

According to Annetta Beauchamp, parish historian, long-time pastor Father Thomas J. Martin commissioned three unknown men who were also friends from St. Louis, Mo., to design a new church for St. Mary Parish in the 1930s. Charles Eames was the architect, Charles Quest painted the mural and Emil Frei designed the stained glass windows. The mural and windows were designed to compliment the early Christian church design of Eames. Eames later became a nationally known furniture designer, Quest’s art hangs in numerous museums and Frei, whose Frei Glass Works is still in operation in St. Louis, was even chosen to do window repair work at the Vatican.

Fascinating little stories, tucked away all over the place…