While in Terre Haute for a conference, I spent a little time in St. Stephen's Episcopal Church which is located on 7th Street across if ISU. I was quite taken by the painting style of the trim and rafters of this building, pictured here.
I went back to my hotel room to do research about this 'candy cane' style of painting. The website for St. Stephens says that when they remodeled the church in the 1960's, they wanted to capture the interior design concepts of St. Mary's Church Ulford, Surry in England. This style is know as Polychrome and dates back to the 13th century in the case of St. Mary's Church.
Further research shows that the candy cane was not invented until the 17th century by European Christians. So my initial thought of 'why paint the trim to look like a candy cane' evolved into 'how lovely if the candy cane was created in the style of a beautiful English church'. If you are even in Terre Haute, Indiana, you should visit this lovely church and take in a little 13th century decor.
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