Unique piece of artwork destroyed in Zion fire

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By BOB REEVES / Lincoln Journal Star

When Zion Church at Ninth and D streets was destroyed by fire Saturday, Lincoln lost more than a historic building.

A unique mural by Lincoln artist David Manrose, dating from the 1940s, also burned up.

It showed a scene from the biblical book of Revelation, with the New Jerusalem — the city of God — emerging from the clouds while the Apostle John looks on.

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Mural at Zion Church that burned in the fire. Mural depicts the apostle John standing on left and the holy city of Jerusalem emerging from the clouds above. Zion, is another name for the heavenly Jerusalem. (Courtesy Photo)

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“When I was little, I’d sit in the pew and look at that mural and think that was heaven,” said Stephanie Nielsen, who attended the church until age 11. 

“It was just so breathtaking and overwhelming.  It affected everyone who saw it.”

The church, which until 1997 was known as Zion Congregational Church, was founded by Germans from Russia, who populated the surrounding South Salt Creek neighborhood.

Nielsen’s parents, Rosemary and Dan Sharp, moved to another part of Lincoln and eventually quit attending Zion. But they always had fond feelings for the old church.

It was because of its beauty — particularly the mural — that Stephanie and Darren Nielsen married there in 2003. They now live in the Kansas City area.

Nielsen was shocked when her mother called and told her about the fire.

“She was in tears,” Nielsen said in a phone interview. “When I heard the church had burned down, it just stopped my heart.”

Nielsen’s great-grandfather, Adam Walters, was a stonemason who helped lay the entrance stones for the church when it was built in 1927. His granddaughter Verna Damm, Nielsen’s cousin, is still a member of the church and reminisced about the building and the mural.

Damm joined the Sunday school at the church in 1934, when she was 5. She and her husband, Peter, were confirmed in the church and later had their wedding there. 

Damm played the organ in the church for many years, and remembers playing at the 9 a.m. German-language service, then teaching Sunday school, and coming back to the sanctuary to play for the English language service.

The church had services in both German and English for many years, she said. “I loved those old German people. They’d say to me in German, ‘Yes, my child, our lives are growing close to eternity.’”

Now she can’t believe it’s gone.

“It was so beautiful, the pipe organ, the stained glass, the woodwork, and that beautiful painting.”

She recalled that the Rev. George T. Schmidt, pastor at the time the mural was painted in the mid-1940s, instructed David Manrose about what to include in the painting. Manrose painted several murals that were backdrops to altars in Lincoln churches.

Over the years, the church has been a popular venue for weddings, largely because of the mural.

In 1997, the congregation voted to merge with the former Covenant Presbyterian Church to form Zion Church. The church has since grown, and has continued to play an important role in the neighborhood, Damm said. Most church members want to rebuild on the same site, she said.

“A lot of people put a lot of blood, sweat and tears into that building, especially the German families. …The church has been our mainstay for many years. I’m just devastated by what happened to it.”

Reach Bob Reeves at 473-7212 or breeves@journalstar.com.