Moreland Summerfest provides relaxing fun for June 30 event
With a new steeple put in place earlier this summer, the Moreland Church of God continues to take shape. Eventually local artist Rusty Baker will recreate the beautiful fresco painting created in the church by local artist Charles Gasche in the 1880s. The church will be open for viewing during Moreland Summerfest.
The tiny berg of Moreland has its heart set on an exciting endeavor, and it is with high expectations that they anticipate a nice crowd turning out for a summer evening of relaxation and entertainment.
The Moreland Community Historical Society will present its fourth annual Moreland Summerfest on June 30, and it promises to be an enjoyable evening of music and fellowship scattered with some historical perspective.
The festival will take place beside the old Moreland township house. The Cedar Valley Cloggers will perform at 4:30 p.m., and there will be an oral history on the Civil War as well as rifle demonstrations by the 41st Ohio Volunteer Infantry Civil War Unit at 5:30 p.m. with John Schmid singing at 6:15 p.m.
There will be a food truck available for this event along with the Wayne County Dairy Promoters, who will have some cold dairy products on hand.
It doesn’t cost anything to attend the events, and the members of the MCHS are excited about providing a chance for visitors to experience the big doings in the small town.
“We want this to be a fun time for people to come and see some of the renovations the historical society is doing in Moreland,” former Moreland Historical Society President Gail Miller said. “For a little town, we have a very active and hard-working group of members who really take a great interest in restoring our historical sites and in keeping our history in our community alive for future generations.”
In addition to the entertainment, visitors are welcome to view both the newly renovated Moreland Church of God on state Route 83 and the former restored township house, which has been renovated and features a whole lot of historical memorabilia, much of which recreates an old schoolhouse, all of which is significant and incredibly interesting.
“The Church of God is a really amazing piece of history that has been returned to its former glory,” Miller said. “It is currently being restored, but people can go inside and see the progress being made, both on the main floor and the downstairs area. We’ve got a lot of it done, but we still have plenty to go, but hopefully we will have it completed by October.”
Miller said as the church nears completion, one of the final tasks will be for local artist Claude “Rusty” Baker to come in and recreate the fresco painting by well-known local artist Charles Gasche, who created the wonder adorning the ceiling of the building in the 1880s.
That hidden gem is just one of the many parts of the old church that has been overlooked for decades.
“I’d say most people who drove by the church never knew it was a church building,” Miller said. “But a few of us here in Moreland knew, and we also knew it had this beautiful fresco artwork done by local artist Charles Gasche. It’s fantastic, and we knew what was in this church building from a historical standpoint, which was why we felt so passionate about restoring it to what it was as closely as possible.”
The church recently saw a new steeple perched high atop its roof, which was one major undertaking of the MCHS.
Once completed, the fresco painting will provide a very stunning portrayal of what the former church building looked like. That alone is an incredible accomplishment, considering most people didn’t realize the building that was very close to state Route 83 was even a church a few short months ago.
There also will be a pair of slate paintings from two local Moreland women who created one-of-a-kind paintings of the church in its heyday back in the early 1900s as well as one of the old township house. Ruth Ella Hageman painted the church building while Judy Stidham created the old township house.
Those paintings will be available for silent auction the evening of Summerfest.
“They are really neat paintings, and hopefully they help generate some interest for anyone wanting to come visit,” Miller said.