Although from the exterior this recently restored, small wooden Gothic Revival structure seems tame, the interior is extraordinary. A complex series of trompe l'oeil frescoes transform it into a masonry Gothic/Renaissance structure with clustered and twisted columns, arches, cornices, coffered ceiling, quatrefoils, and other architectural details, seemingly straight from Italy. It remains the best surviving work of an Italian immigrant—sometimes termed the “hobo painter”—who was born in Chieri, Torino, Italy, in 1831 and died in Madison County in 1913.
Mitchell's Presbyterian Church
1879. 1892–1899, interior, Joseph Dominick Phillip Oddenino, decorative painter. VA 665 (Mitchell Rd.) (.2 mile east from Virginia 615), Mitchell's Station