Organ History

Early in 1908 the parish began collecting for a new organ, the pastor asking by letter for a donation of ten cents from everybody. "By April 19^th a sum of $64 had been collected and on April 27^th the total had risen to $84.61 and by May 7^th to $178.30 - nickels and dimes augmented by occasional dollars, $10 gift by Anheuser-Busch, and a $3 from Siegfried Siebert". The church pipe organ was built by W. W. Kimball Company. It was the largest organ in the city at that time.

An organ concert was given by Edwin H. Lemare from New York City on the newly finished organ, then considered one of the best in the southwest, for the rededication after the completion of the church interior on July 4, 1911. Today Mr. Lemare is remembered as one of the most prolific composers of the late Romantic period and who had technical wizardry on the organ.

In 1964 the original organ had tremendous burn and water damage from the church fire making it unplayable until 1987 when Nichols and Simpson Company restored it with the exception of 9 stops due to limited funds.

These stops will be added in the next few months thanks to a couple of generous parishioners who envisioned the completed pipe organ to lift the spirit of our assembly and enrich the worship and prayer. This completion of the organ by Walker Technologies will add color and richness of oboes, trumpets, bassoons, flutes and violins to the organ as it was originally intended.

Our current organ replacement cost is over $1,000,000!