Centuries-old angels uncovered at Boston church made famous by Paul Revere

Straddling the scaffolding high up in a historic Boston church, murals conservator Gianfranco Pocobene is working to uncover eight angels that were hidden under layers of paint for more than a century.

The painted angels — with round childlike faces and wings — once were among the defining features of Old North Church when they were painted around 1730. But officials at the church, a seminal location of the Revolutionary War, painted over the angels in 1912 with thick coats of white paint, part of an austere renovation that restorationists are trying to reverse.

What lies beneath the paint?

“When we first looked at the project six months ago, we had no idea what was here,” Pocobene said as the church, the oldest church building in Boston, was preparing to remove the scaffolding earlier this month to reveal eight of the 20 painted-over angels.

“It's really been quite a revelation to find these really interesting and historic works of art on the walls of the church that nobody has seen in our lifetime," he continued. ”Just to be part of a project where we are revealing something from colonial America is really extraordinary."

A popular stop for tourists visiting Boston's North End, the Old North Church is best known for the two lanterns hung from its steeple on the night of Paul Revere’s 1775 ride to warn of the British army’s approach. Revere was also a teenage bell ringer in the congregation. In 1860, Henry Wadsworth Longfellow wrote “Paul Revere’s Ride,” mentioning the church and introducing the phrase, “one if by land, and two if by sea.”

Returning the church to its roots

But as the 250th anniversary of Revere's ride approaches in April, church officials also want to draw attention to its beginnings in 1723 and its identity, both as a beacon of liberty but also its connections to the slave trade — many of its first congregants profited off slavery. The church was built to house Boston's growing colonial Anglican community and its interior was much more colorful and dynamic than what visitors see today.

“For much of the church’s history, people who were coming here to the church would have seen those angels, would have seen the colorful interior,” said Emily Spence, the associate director of education at Old North Illuminated, which operates the church as a historic site.

“The color scheme was an important part of the identity of the people who worshiped here as members of the congregation of a Church of England church,” she said, adding the interiors would have set the church apart from Puritans who dominated Boston at the time.

Spence said that exploration started in September with efforts to restore the sandstone and teal-colored angels — eight completed this month and another eight by the spring. They were made to look like stone sculptures and it remains unclear why they were painted over.

Bringing angels to life

Researchers knew from the historical record that the angels were on the walls and they still have a copy of a contract signed with John Gibbs, a congregation member who painted them. A paint study completed in 2017 confirmed their presence but their condition was unclear.

Corrine Long, a painting conservator who works with Pocobene, said one of the challenges was removing seven layers of paint without damaging the angels. The team first applied a solvent gel to soften the layers of paint and then manually removed it with a plastic scraper. After that, they cleaned the angels with cotton swabs before retouching to remove any signs of damage.

Once Pocobene and Long started removing the paint, they knew they'd uncovered something special.

"They all have their own character — they're not copies,” Pocobene, who has his own studio in Lawrence, Massachusetts, said. “The artist John Gibbs painted them individually and they’re all in different poses, which gives them a really wonderful rhythmic kind of pattern across the surface of the church.”

For Long, one of the most satisfying parts of the project was returning parts of the church to what the founders had intended — and what tourists should see.

“Whenever I go into a building with history, it amazes me to be surrounded with paintings or the decorations that were there originally,” she said. “When it’s been repainted to be white, it takes away some of that majesty and some of that history."

On a recent day, the church was mostly empty except for the conservators. But two tourists, Sean Dixon and Sarah Jardine from California, did slip in. They walked the aisles and stared up at the scaffolding. It was hard to see the angels through all the steel but what they did see inspired them.

“I was kind of shocked when I first saw it,” said Dixon, an account manager from San Francisco. “It looks really cool and I’m really excited to see the full picture once the scaffolding comes down.”