Creativity & Vision Transform Church

Before & After, Nave of Church

In the summer of 2013, Fr. Eric Schild approached Henninger's for ideas to renovate his parish, St. Jerome Church in Walbridge, a Church in the Diocese of Toledo.  The Church building that Fr. Eric arrived to when he was appointed Pastor of St. Jerome's was a converted multi-purpose room with glass-block windows on the cinder block walls and a large heating vent running down the center of the ceiling.  The sanctuary was also too small and not functional for Mass, so Fr. Eric and Henninger's began to collaborate on ideas to give the space more of a "church" feel and improve the aesthetics and functionality of the Church, all while staying within a budget.

Before & After, Sanctuary

So as St. Jerome's began a capital campaign, Henninger's assisted Fr. Eric in utilizing some furniture from closed Churches from Canton to Cleveland to upstate New York in an attempt to re-use liturgical appointments while tying them together into a cogent - and liturgical - plan.

The first aspect of the project that they began to plan for was how to incorporate Stained Glass Windows in the side walls to eliminate the glass-block windows in the Church.  Dealing with limitations set forth by the existing building, Henninger's and Fr. Eric found lancet windows that had been previously housed in Akron that added colors and religious symbols without being too large or ornate.  The windows needed to be re-leaded and Henninger's recommended that the lancet windows be paired together and added to in order to create gothic arches that could adorn the side walls down the nave.  A rendering was created for the congregation and the architect to review and the lancet windows were set aside for St. Jerome's with the idea that the work would be done as further plans were fleshed out and as the capital campaign continued.

As the planning continued, Fr. Eric was able to find an Altar of Repose from a Church that had closed in upstate New York and Henninger's showed him an Ambo that had previously been in a since-closed Church in Lorain, Ohio.  The styles of the two pieces matched very well and the richness of the stained wood of the Ambo was an appealing starting point for the other furniture, even if the Altar of Repose was originally painted an off-white color, which is how it arrived into Henninger's shop.

While continuing to find furniture that would complement these two main pieces (a baptismal font from Youngstown, an Altar of Sacrifice from Canton, among others), Fr. Eric was contacted by a Church in Fostoria, Ohio who told him that they had a set of Stations of the Cross that they were no longer using.  Upon viewing them, Fr. Eric was thrilled as they were the large Stations that he had been looking for to adorn the side walls between the new Stained Glass windows and the colors complemented the colors of the Stained Glass windows that had been picked out.  There was only one problem - there were only 13 Stations.

So Henninger's went to work finding a readily-available Station that could complement the rest of the set and - with a little work - could be modified to match the rest of the set.  A replacement Station was found from a company in Chicago that specializes in fiberglass statues and Henninger's ordered the missing 8th Station.  Upon the arrival of the Station, Henninger's went to work on a plan to modify it to match the rest of the Stations.

With the plans for the renovations being finalized by the Church, the architect, and the contractor, Henninger's began work on modifications to the pieces that had been accumulating for St. Jerome's over the previous two years.  Their first project was on the Stations of the Cross and, most acutely, the modification of the "replacement" Station of the Cross.  After completing the maintenance and repair work on 13 of the 14 Stations, which had been in a Church attic for decades, to get them back to nearly new condition, Henninger's devised a game-plan to fabricate a base for the "replacement" Station that would match the rest of the set.  After the base was created, Henninger's cut the "replacement" Station to replicate the exact size of the rest of the set, then painted the Station as the rest of the set appeared to make the "replacement" Station blend seamlessly in with the rest of the set.

A mold is created to create a new base

The new mold next to an existing Station

A wood top is added to replicate the base's top

Connecting the two components

Painting to match

Side-by-side of "replacement" and existing

While the Stations of the Cross were being completed in the wood-shop and paint room, Henninger's artists went to work on the Stained Glass windows, repairing the old windows, modifying them to the new design, and readying them to transport to the now-being-renovated Church.

Windows being re-built to new size

Windows taken apart

Completed Bottom Panels

Top Arches being completed

Windows completed & ready for transport to St. Jerome Church

Ambo color to match

As the dedication date was set and work continued on-site with contractors, electricians, and plumbers, Henninger's continued to work on the liturgical appointments and furniture.  With most of the furniture chosen and figured into the architectural plans, Henninger's faced the question of how to make all of the furniture match the richness of the wood Ambo, given that some of the pieces (the Altar of Repose, the Altar of Sacrifice, the Side Altars, and two pedestals) were all various shades of white or cream and some were actually made of plaster instead of wood.  So, Henninger's went to work priming and painting all of the furniture so they would match the Ambo.

Base to the Altar of Repose, primed for paint

Woodgrained Base to Altar of Repose

Gold Accents Added to Base

Top of Altar of Repose

Completed Top Portion of Altar of Repose

Woodgrained Sanctuary Furniture

 

Furniture Ready for Delivery

With most of the work completed and with the site readied for the liturgical aspects of the renovation, Henninger's loaded up the trailer to install the Stained Glass windows, the Stations of the Cross, and all of the Sanctuary furniture.

With the installation complete, the Church was readied for the dedication with the Bishop of the Diocese of Toledo, Most Rev. Daniel Thomas.  As parishioners arrived, they could not believe the transformation of their Church, both in the Nave and the Sanctuary.  With hard work, creativity, and resourcefulness, Henninger's and St. Jerome's had transformed the Church from a multi-purpose room with glass-block windows and a small Sanctuary to a space that looked more like a Church with a beautiful and functional Sanctuary.

Fr. Eric Schild speaks at the Dedication Mass

Bishop Daniel Thomas at the Dedication Mass

Mary, Queen of the Apostles Adorns Church

Front of Church after trees cut down

After cutting down trees in front of his Church, Fr. Jim Stenger called Henninger's for ideas to make his brick A-frame building look "more like a Church" from the street while honoring Mary, the patron of his Church.  Fr. Stenger's Church was the result of a merger of Assumption of Mary Church and St. Peter the Apostle Church and the new Church had been named Mary, Queen of the Apostles Church.  So Henninger's set out on some ideas for including Mary while including the Apostles while keeping costs in check.  Complicating the matter, the new design needed to be able to make it through the weather in Cleveland, meaning that wood, plaster, or anything else that would be affected by rain, snow, or any other possible weather.

The first thought was to incorporate a mosaic on the front of the building, but the size needed for the mosaic to be noticed from the street would have resulted in the creation of nearly 54 square feet of mosaic, which would then have to be installed on the exterior of the Church, causing the cost to become prohibitive.

Henninger's then approached Fr. Stenger about a fiberglass statue of Mary, holding the Christ Child and wearing a crown, that was available in a bronze finish.  The statue was available in an 8' size and the bronze powder that was used when the fiberglass casting was made would age like real bronze, allowing it to stand out from the brick facade nicely.  However, because the statue was cast in fiberglass, weight was not the issue that it would have been with a cast bronze piece.

In approaching the Apostles, Henninger's found steel stars that could be configured around the statue on Mary on the front of the building, with 12 stars representing each of the Apostles.  With the design finalized, Henninger's arranged for the statue to be made in Italy by the Demetz Art Studio and sent to Cleveland.  Upon arrival, the statue was uncrated and prepared for installation, with the size of the statue and the beauty of the statue amazing everyone who saw the stunning statue.

After readying the site and installing a limestone shelf upon which the 250 lb. statue would sit, Henninger's crew went to work on scaffolding to install the statue, then the stars around the statue on the front of the building.

The result of the design work and installation led Fr. Stenger to remark that the front of the Church looked "better than he could have imagined" with Mary and the Apostles honored on the facade of the Church and a complete transformation for the look of the Church.

A "New" Church in the City

"Old" Church

With a growing congregation and an eye towards the future, Fr. Bob Marva contacted Henninger's to assist him in his ambitious idea replace his current Church at St. Agnes-Our Lady of Fatima on Cleveland's East Side with a brand-new structure.  Fr. Marva wanted to create a larger, more open space for the community and create a worship space that incorporated not only components of the "old" Church, but also utilize items from other closed parishes from the Diocese of Cleveland.

Tabernacle in wall

In visiting the Church, the first step was determining what to use and what to design as new pieces for the planned worship space.  Fr. Marva asked about his tabernacle, which was the original tabernacle from St. Agnes Church in Cleveland, which was torn down in 1975.  When the tabernacle was salvaged from St. Agnes however, it was recessed into the wall, meaning that Fr. Marva was unsure what the majority of the tabernacle looked like and whether it would be usable in the still-to-be-built Church.

Henninger's removed the tabernacle from the wall and formulated a plan with Fr. Marva to have the tabernacle refinished to its original beauty, also fabricating a new dome for the top with a finial that was similar in style to the original dome, which had been lost decades before.

St. Lawrence Altar

The next step in the design process was to determine how to utilize items that were already in use by the Church and integrate them into designing the sanctuary furniture and liturgical appointments, ideally utilizing available pieces from other closed Churches from the Diocese of Cleveland.  In reviewing what was available, Fr. Marva decided that the Altar of Sacrifice that had graced the sanctuary at the since-closed St. Lawrence Church in Cleveland would work very well in terms of the amount of marble contained within the Altar - to make multiple "new" pieces of furniture from one Altar - as well as the colors and design within the marble Altar of Sacrifice to adorn the still-to-be-built new Church for St. Agnes-Our Lady of Fatima.

Candlestick Style

In addition to the Altar of Sacrifice from St. Lawrence, Fr. Marva had a particular style of candlesticks that were currently in use at the Church that he wanted to incorporate into the new furniture, combining wood in the style of the candlesticks with the marble from the St. Lawrence Altar to create a new Altar of Sacrifice, Altar of Repose, and Ambo.  Because of the size of the mensa from the St. Lawrence Altar and the desired sizes of the new pieces to fit the new Church, Henninger's was able to come up with a plan to cut and re-purpose the mensa from the St. Lawrence Altar to present renderings to Fr. Marva.
 

Altar of Repose Rendering

Altar of Sacrifice Rendering

 

Ambo Rendering

With the designs approved and with the ground-breaking for the new Church about to begin, Henninger's went to work to re-purpose the marble from the old Altar of Sacrifice from St. Lawrence while creating the new wood components of the furniture.  Additionally, a Nigerian symbol that served as an emblem for the largely African-American community of St. Agnes-Our Lady of Fatima, was carved out of wood to adorn the front of the base of the newly-created Altar of Sacrifice and would serve as a complement to the Lamb of God symbol that would adorn the base of the newly-created Altar of Repose.

Additionally, the tabernacle refinishing was completed, with a newly-created dome and the decision was made to marbleize a band of wood that would go around the newly-refinished tabernacle in colors that would match and complement the marble components of the furniture.

As work continued on site for the new Church, Henninger's readied the components of the new furniture in preparation for their installation at the new Church.  Working in concert with the general contractor and the other trades, Henninger's arrived on site to install the three newly-created pieces of sanctuary as well as the newly-refinished tabernacle.

In addition to the new Sanctuary furniture, Henninger's worked with Fr. Marva to design a pew style that would fit in with the new open space and coordinated the arrival and installation of the pews for the dedication of the worship space by Bishop Richard Lennon on the night before Thanksgiving, 2015.  With the new pews and the flexible seating of the chairs that Henninger's provided for the Church, the new seating capacity of 325 nearly doubled the previous seating capacity.

As the dedication neared, the triumph of a new Church being built on Cleveland's near East Side had been accomplished, through the leadership and dedication of Fr. Marva.  A community that had grown from 150 families to nearly 400 families needed a new, larger worship space and - in keeping with the community's history as a merged parish between St. Agnes Church and Our Lady of Fatima Church in 1980 - the new building brought together the old and the new.  In utilizing the available marble from the St. Lawrence Altar and working to come up with designs that would fit into the new worship space, the process resulted in a beautiful success story of growth and rebirth.