De Merlier Murals Restored in Former Theatre Lobby

     The Purple Robin Reserve at 47 East Main Street occupies what was formerly the lobby of the Lititz Community Theatre. The remarkable feature of the place is not its reuse of an older structure but the fact that it retains the principal decorations of the earlier enterprise.

    These decorations are a series of nine murals painted by Belgian artist Franz de Merlier when the theatre was being built in 1935. Depicting noted scenes and landmarks from Lititz, the paintings graced the theatre lobby until the showplace was closed and converted into shops and commercial space. They remained on the walls of one of the stores, but in over half a century had become badly soiled and faded.

The owners of the Piano and Organ Center, Dave and Hetty Andrews (early occupants), and the owners of the building, Lititz Improvement, investigated having the historic art works refurbished. The Lititz Historical Foundation agreed to foot half the cost. Engaged to do the work was the Twistback Conservation Center of Oxford, Pa. The price was set at $1,200. [Editor’s note: They have since been restored again by Brandywine Museum.]

The job was beautifully done and was completed in April by specialists of the art rehabilitation firm – Timothy and Ruth Jayne, their daughter Margaret Rosen and Margaret's husband Bruce. The team has done similar work for Franklin and Marshall College, the Hershey Museum, the Brandywine River Museum, and many other institutions and private clients.

De Merlier, after coming to this country from his native Belgium, studied at the Cincinnati Art Museum and the Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Arts. He spent most of his life at Chadds Ford in Chester County and was a contemporary of N. C. Wyeth. He became principally noted as a muralist, although he did many conventional paintings as well.

De Merlier also painted the cheerful historical panels in the Lititz Mutual Insurance Building on the square, and a large panel of Lititz Springs Park that can be seen in what is now the Lititz Book Store on Main Street. [Editor's note: What was at the time this article was written the Lititz Book Store is now the Tied House Restaurant. The mural is still visible just inside the door.]

The Lititz Historical Foundation is pleased to have been able to lend a hand in the restoration at the Piano and Organ Center and commends Dave and Hetty Andrews and Lititz Improvement for having initiated the project.

Anyone who wants to see the restored paintings is more than welcome to visit the store.

by Gladys J. F. Crowl, LHF Historic Journal