From the outside, it looks like an ordinary church building. But the South Solon Meeting House holds a secret.
Most people who drive through the tiny town of Solon, Maine, don’t know about the colorful artwork inside the building. The inside is covered in 70-year-old fresco murals. That’s why the church is nicknamed “Maine’s Sistine Chapel.”
To make a fresco, artists paint on wet plaster. Fresco comes from the Italian word for fresh. Have you heard of Michelangelo? He was a famous Italian artist. He used fresco to decorate the Sistine Chapel in Vatican City in the 16th century. He even painted on the ceiling.
Artists painted the murals at the Meeting House in the 1950s. The building no longer hosts church services. But the colorful frescoes inspire art lovers. Students at Colby College in Waterville, Maine, made a website to spread the word about the artwork.
The meeting house was built in 1842. People used it for church services until the 1940s. A decade later, Margaret Day Blake found the building. It was in bad shape. She put out a call for young artists. She asked them to paint frescoes inside the church in 1951.
The artists could paint whatever they wanted. But Mrs. Blake encouraged them to focus on bBiblical scenes.
One scene shows Abraham preparing to sacrifice his son Isaac. There’s also a fresco of the Genesis flood. That painting looks like one of Michelangelo’s frescoes.
Painting the Maine building took four years. That’s also how long it took Michelangelo to paint the Sistine Chapel.
Two of the 13 artists who worked on the meeting house are still living. Sidney Hurwitz is one of them. He is now in his 90s.
“We would go out there and paint and then take a lunch break in the cemetery behind the building,” says Mr. Hurwitz. “I very much enjoyed it.”
Finally, brothers, whatever is true, whatever is honorable, whatever is just, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is commendable, if there is any excellence, if there is anything worthy of praise, think about these things. — Philippians 4:8
