June 24, 2025 // Diocese

From Trash Bags to Treasure

Nicole Hahn

Director of Secretariat for Communications

Historic Murals Grace the Walls of SS. Peter and Paul Parish Once Again

Four 125-year-old murals thought to have been painted over during one of the renovations to SS. Peter and Paul Church in Huntington are back where they belong. There are two angel murals, one featuring St. Boniface, and one of St. Anne teaching Scripture to the Blessed Mother. They now grace the entrance to the church, so they are the first things people see when they go into the parish.

Father Tony Steinacker spoke to Today’s Catholic about their history ahead of the parish’s patronal feast day, June 29, the feast of SS. Peter and Paul.

“The two angel murals hung above the doors that go into the priest and altar server sacristies. St. Boniface and St. Anne with the Blessed Mother hung in the sanctuary,” he said.  “We believe they were installed around the turn of the century when modern lighting was introduced to the church.”

Father Steinacker said that sometime in the ’60s during a renovation – or what he quipped people called “wreckovation” – the murals were thought to have been painted over.

“People around at the time didn’t communicate what actually happened to them, so legend had it that they were just painted over.”

That legend appeared to be accurate when, in 2019 while doing a large renovation to the sanctuary, Father Steinacker said that while he and the workers were going up and down the scaffolding, they noticed a half-inch lip going straight up the walls. This slight protrusion measured 14-feet tall and 9-feet wide.

“We thought … it must be true that the murals were painted over. How sad,” Father Steinacker said.

Things took a strange turn in the summer of 2024, when parishioner Phil Zahm of St. Mary Church, which is located just one street away from SS. Peter and Paul, called Huntington County Historical Museum Director Barb Rupley, who happens to be a parishioner of SS. Peter and Paul, to let her know about some murals he found in his garage, not knowing their significance.

“Phil Zahm purchased the home that he and his wife lived in from the man who took the murals down,” Father Steinacker said.

The Zahms were in the process of moving when Phil’s wife said, “Clearly dear, you’re not going to bring those to the new house, are you?” That is when Zahm called Rupley to give them to the museum.

“Barb Rupley takes a picture of the murals because she knows exactly where they came from, because she grew up in this parish and had seen pictures of them,” Father Steinacker said. “She sends a picture of one of them to me, and I immediately respond, ‘Where are you?’ because I know that these are our murals. I then race down to the museum within minutes where we unfold each of them gently and are just in awe, first of all, that they exist,” said Father Steinacker, with tears welling in his eyes.

The murals had been wrapped in trash bags for decades, which caused considerable deterioration, but they decided to preserve them as they found them. The angels have the most vibrant colors because the murals were all wrapped together, and the angels were on the inside, while St. Boniface and St. Anne and the Blessed Mother were wrapped on the outside. Father Steinacker said it would have cost an exorbitant amount of money to bring them back to their original state, so they had them encased in glass and put in frames to fit the era during which they were originally installed.

“There is one of the murals, the mural of St. Boniface, that has a large square section missing from it, but again, we felt as though it should be preserved the way that we found it,” Father Steinacker said.

Where the St. Boniface mural once hung in the sanctuary, there is now a mural of St. Michael made by Peter Lupkin of William L. Lupkin Designs in Fort Wayne, a graduate of Bishop Luers High School, Father Steinacker pointed out.

“So, the early founders of SS. Peter and Paul Parish, a German parish, had a strong devotion to St. Boniface because he is the patron saint of Germany. Bishop Rhoades beautifully has asked all of us to have a stronger devotion to St. Michael, so that is why his mural is there.”

He continued: “The mural of St. Anne teaching the Blessed Mother Scripture is a timeless piece, therefore we put a timely figure, Blessed Father Solanus Casey, where the Blessed Mother and St. Anne’s Mural was.”

Not only is it incredible that the murals were found wrapped in trash bags in a garage, but Father Steinacker said they were at one time in a barn that caught fire.

“Somehow, miraculously, they were preserved and saved from disaster and completely gone,” he added.

Father Steinacker concluded: “People have been visiting SS. Peter and Paul during this Jubilee year, and when they come through the front doors, this is what they are greeted with, the beautiful history of this historic church, which was built in 1865. These beautiful murals were added at the turn of the century, and here we are now, in 2025, 125 years later, and they are being appreciated once again. Come see us!”

Nicole Hahn is the secretary of communications for the Diocese of Fort Wayne-South Bend.