Travels of a Scenic Artist and Scholar: The Twin City Scenic Co. and St. Patrick’s Parish Hall. Shieldsville, Minnesota, 2015-2022.

Travels of a Scenic Artist and Scholar: The Twin City Scenic Co. and St. Patrick’s Parish Hall. Shieldsville, Minnesota.

Copyright © 2022 by Wendy Waszut-Barrett

My relationship with the Church of St. Patrick in Shieldsville, Minnesota, began in 2015. That fall, the office administrator, Tracy Velishek, contacted me about preserving an historic backdrop.

She wrote:

“Wendy,
Attached is our old social hall which will be torn down in December.  
The other is the backdrop we would like preserved.  I got pictures of 
the other backdrop but am not very techy and cannot figure out how to 
send it to you from my phone.  I will have my son help me later today.  
It is our understanding that the building was an opera house in its 
early days.  We are trying to find out what we can about it.  Thank 
you for your time.  I look forward to hearing from you.  I have the 
backdrop we want to save in our new social hall rolled up so after 
Thursday I will know a timeline as to when we will be doing something 
with it.”

Musicals and dramas were presented in the Church of St. Patrick’s parish hall under the ministry of Father John J. Molloy (1866-1962). He served at the Shieldsville parish for 52 years, from 1909 to 1961. By the way, this was the first Irish Catholic parish in the State of Minnesota, founded in 1856.

Molloy’s service was included in Margaret Hagerty’s 1940 publication “Meet Shieldsville: The Story of St. Patrick’s Parish Shieldsville.”

Hagerty’s entry for Rev. J. J. Molly:

“Rev. John J. Molloy was born in the County Mayo, Ireland, and was educated at St. Patrick’s college in Kildare. He was ordained at Maynooth in 1891 and a few months later came to America. He was assistant pastor at St. Patrick’s in St. Paul from October 1899 to April 1900 and then spent one year at St. Mary’s in St. Paul. The next three years he was assistant pastor at St. Anthony’s in Minneapolis. He then organized St. Joseph parish in Montevideo and was in charge there three years. The next two years were spent at St. George’s parish at Glencoe and then nine years were spent at St. Mary’s, Wilmar. He came to Shieldsville in 1909 and for the last thirty years has made a splendid record. “Father Molloy faced a tremendous task when he arrived in Shieldsville. The place was sadly run down and in need of repairs, so he astounded us all by taking off his coat, rolling up his sleeves and going to work. Up to that time none of us knew that a priest’s coat or a Roman collar were removable, He had the house remodeled, cleaned, and painted. The church too was redecorated, and the landscape worked over and improved. A new fence was built around the cemetery. To keep the young folks near home for entertainment a pavilion as built in the grove, and it proved to be such a success that Father Molloy was encouraged to build St. Patrick’s hall. Much of the work on the hall was donated and every man in the parish was busy. The women raked their brains to think up ways and means to pay for the lumber and furnish the kitchen. It was a delightful change for the ladies of St. Patrick’s parish to have a spacious kitchen to work in and to have a dining room large enough to serve 100 people at a time.”

In 1961, Father Molloy was observed as the oldest priest in the St. Paul Archdiocese and the priest with the longest service, serving under four bishops. He passed away on June 29, 1962, and is buried in St. Patrick Cemetery at the site of the Crucifixion monument, erected in the 1950’s.

Molloy’s dramatic contributions were again remembered in “History of Our Parish,” written by Catherine Spartz in 1971:

“Father Molloy loved people around him and believed in having the social life of his parishoners inherent with their religion. Musicals and dramas were presented in the hall during Father Molloy’s ministry, with the principal performers, members of the parish. St. Patrick’s day in March and the Feast of the Assumption of the Blessed Virgin in August were special times in Shieldsville, Father, who himself had a beautiful speaking and singing voice, organized an outstanding choir.”

The St. Patrick’s Hall stock scenery collection was delivered by the Twin City Scenic Studio, c. 1914-1915, and included a drop curtain, two painted grand tormentors, a garden roll drop, a rocky mountain roll drop, four folding wood wings, a double-painted interior set (center door fancy/rustic interior), and an advertising curtain.

Over time, the stage fell into a state of disrepair and much of the stock scenery found its way to an attic where it was subjected to water damage from roof leaks and stains from bat guano.

In December 2015, the old social hall was torn down, but the scenery survived. At the time, Tracy’s son (Andy Velishek )was running a local theatre troupe and hoped that the flats could be repaired and used for upcoming productions. Despite the filth that covered the scenery, Velishek rescued the scenery and stored them in a barn.

There, they sat in relative safety for the next two years.

Conversations with the Church of St. Patrick resumed during the spring on 2017 when I was contracted to restore the ad drop and install it in the new social hall. 

While working on site that summer, Andy Velishek brought over some of the other salvaged scenery, including the two other roll drops, the woods wings, grand tormentors, and some interior flats. Despite the extensive damage, their beauty was unmistakable.

Studio stencils and shipping tags clearly indicated the collection’s artistic provenance.

By the beginning of 2018, I restored the three remaining roll drops – drop curtain, garden drop, and rocky mountain pass.

They were installed in the new social hall attached to the sanctuary at the Church of St. Patrick’s in Shieldsville. When I delivered and hung the drops that spring, I considered my work with the St. Patrick’s Hall scenery collection over.

I was surprised to receive the following text on Nov. 4. 2022:

“Hey there, Wendy. Tracy Velishek here.  Don’t know if you remember me but you finished our backdrops at St Patrick in Shieldsville a few years ago.  I hope you are doing good and still doing the work you love… Our son Andy still has a bunch of flats that he has to get rid of because he has run out of room…Do you know if anyone who would want them?  They have not been cleaned and one or two have some tears…If he doesn’t find someone to take them, he is going to burn them.  I would hate to see that and hope you would know of SOMEONE who would want them.  I look forward to your reply.”

Burn them…if she had texted anything else, I may have put this project on hold for a few months. I was opening a show that evening and traveling to the Louisville Scottish Rite theatre for a restoration project the next week. 

After striking Gilbert and Sullivan Very Light Opera Company’s “Pirates of Penzance” on Nov. 20, I found myself driving south to Lonsdale, Minnesota, where the historic scenery collection was now stored.  Half of my rental trailer was occupied with set from “Pirates.”  It was a small wing-and-shutter stage.

The other half of my rental trailer was reserved for the historic scenery. Amazingly, the St. Patrick’s Hall stock flats would also work in my small Pirates stage.

When I picked up the scenery, Tracy gave me a big hug and handed me a gift bag with four jars of their homemade jelly.  Historic scenery and a bag of jelly; who could ask for more? 

The scenery is currently at my studio, awaiting cleaning, repair, and a second life on the stage.  I will continue to update this post as each piece is restored and displayed.

To be continued…