This Romanesque style church in Milwaukee was designed by architect Edward Townsend Mix and built in 1884.
The marble and mosaic Salviati reredos of 1890-91 was originally located under the apse mural of three stylized angels.
The altar reredos was dismantled after a December 1950 fire, which seriously damaged the chancel and its furnishings.
The mosaic panels from the dismantled reredos were relocated in 1953 to niches on the liturgical west wall of the nave.
Following renovations in 2012, the worship space was restored to more
closely resemble the design before the fire. That included the
installation of a new organ in the apse using much of the
old Hook and Hastings pipes, the removal of transept walls added after
the fire, the closing of the apse that replaced the altar and reredos of
the original church, and moving the cross and altar into the area
formerly the choir stalls.
The church will be celebrating its 175th Anniversary later this year.
Sources:
Wikipedia
Barr, Sheldon.
Venetian Glass Mosaics: 1860-1917. London: Antique Collectors' Club, 2008. 126.
Historical American Building Survey: St. Paul's Episcopal Church, 1969
Pipe Organ Database
Paul McClure DC's flickr Photostream
Ship of Fools
Beyer Construction
A special thanks to Steve Teague, Rector at
St. Paul's Episcopal Church Milwaukee for personally providing both additional information about the reredos, as well as the photographs of the mosaics themselves.
