One of the first projects being undertaken with funds from our See God’s Beauty Capital Campaign is the painting of the Parish House. It has been a long time since the upper level has received a fresh coat of paint, and the project will include scraping, painting, and the repair of siding and trim. The Building Committee has been creating the specs for the project,  a so that bids can be made and work can progress soon.

The upper level of the Parish House was originally designed as a first floor chapel, by noted Victorian architects Ware and Van Brunt in the 1870’s. In 1900, the chapel was raised to create our current Parish Hall, and the classrooms, offices, and kitchen were created on the first floor.

Sara Chase, a historic preservation consultant, was hired to examine the woodwork to see if we could determine the original color scheme. While the original colors could not be discovered, Ms. Chase created three historically accurate schemes.  Below is a depiction of the colors chosen by the Vestry.  It is hard to see all of them in this one picture – larger samples of each of the colors will be on display in the Parish House for the next few weeks.

While we do not know the original colors, these colors will be similar to those Ware and Van Brunt might have chosen in their day  and will be a vibrant reminder to Charlestown that we are here and thriving in our own day.

Thanks to Mike Mickelson for taking a rendition of the Parish House created by John Freeman and “painting” it.