Sequestered in a peaceful neighborhood behind Tyrone’s Gray Memorial Football Field rises a contemporary church, constructed in 1971, and christened Church of the Good Shepherd. Sequestered in the sanctuary of this 1971 church behind the altar and the pulpit stands a Moller pipe organ, constructed in 1917. Ninety-six years later, as church members gather for Sunday worship at Good Shepherd, few people realize that hidden in the heart of this Moller pipe organ resides a story of REJOICING, RELAPSE, and ultimately, RESURRECTION.
Rejoicing in a New Pipe Organ
REJOICING about this Moller pipe organ commenced on Sunday, June 3, 1917. On that Sabbath morning, the members of Columbia Avenue Methodist Church held a Jubilee Service to dedicate their new Sunday school building and their new Moller pipe organ.
During the spring of 1917, the Frederick Beyer Construction Company had completed a new Sunday school building and attached it to the 1891 Columbia Avenue Methodist Church sanctuary. Even as the new Sunday school building emerged in Tyrone, in nearby Hagerstown, Maryland, a Moller pipe organ of two keyboards and eight ranks evolved within the walls of The Moller Company Headquarters.
Custom built in 1917 for the 1891 Columbia Avenue sanctuary, this Moller pipe organ contained about 480 metal and wooden pipes. It probably cost about $3,300, during those closing days of World War I. Once completed, The Moller Company designated this instrument as Opus 2252.
At this time, in far off Europe, World War I gave onlookers plenty of reasons to mourn. By contrast, on the morning of June 3, 1917, the people of Columbia Avenue Methodist Church experienced several reasons for rejoicing. Pastor Michael Derstine had skillfully led the parish through building the new Sunday school, and acquiring the new Moller pipe organ; their guest pastor, Dr. John Krantz of New York City, had preached an inspiring dedication sermon; and their guest organist — Mrs. Samuel Beyer — had delivered a confident and commanding performance.
After the dedication at Columbia Avenue Methodist Church in 1917, the eight-rank Moller pipe organ gave faithful service through The Great Depression, World War II, and into the era when Russia launched Sputnik late in 1957.
According to Pastor Leroy Harrison, in the late 1950s, the Columbia Avenue Moller pipe organ underwent some routine renovations. Most likely, this involved replacing the console, leathers, and wind chests — those wooden boxes upon which the nearly 500 metal and wooden pipes stood in order to secure air from the blower.
Relapse in a Church Fire
On February 25, 1963, the Columbia Avenue Methodist Church suffered a disastrous sanctuary fire that caused an estimated $50,000 worth of building damages, according to the Tyrone Daily Herald. Then on February 28, 1963, smoldering embers from the initial church fire erupted and caused an additional $4,000 worth of damage to an already blackened building interior.
Tragically, the 1917 Moller pipe organ sustained $10,000 worth of damage: console cabinet blistering, keyboard melting, pipe bending, and steam damage to the wind chests caused by flash fire temperatures which probably peaked around 600 degrees.
Two weeks after the fire, The Moller Company stated that to refinish the console cabinet, replace the 2 keyboards, 32 stop tablets, 9 new pistons, and 155 pipes would cost Columbia Avenue Methodist Church $9,600. On April 27, 1963, just two months after the winter fire, the John C. Yenter Company of Tyrone indicated that repairing the church and rebuilding its Moller pipe organ would cost about $53,000.
As weeks turned to months turned to years, the congregation embarked on an exploration about whether to rebuild again on Columbia Avenue or to build anew on Clay Avenue, behind Gray Memorial Field.
After nine long years of proposals and prayer, in the summer of 1971, the people of Columbia Avenue Methodist Church broke ground on Clay Avenue, so that the John C. Yenter Company could build them a new church of contemporary design at a cost of approximately $400,000.
Once they embarked on their building mission, parishioners were shocked to discover that the organ rebuilding project cost of $9,600 in 1963 had increased to $13,718 in 1971. Church officers indicated that they could not absorb the $4,100 increase proposed by The Moller Organ Company. Ultimately, the company and the church compromised at a new total cost of $10,634 for the rebuilding of the pipe organ. Of course, this compromise meant that 155 organ pipes, which had been through the fire, would have to be repaired and reused. Unfortunately, this financial compromise meant that the rebuilt organ could not contain an 8-foot flute on the upper or swell keyboard.
On January 10, 1972, Moller trucks arrived to remove the Moller pipe organ from the fire damaged organ chambers of the Columbia Avenue church. It occurred to some parishioners that their pipe organ had indeed descended into a kind of hell and had remained there for almost nine years. But now the Day of Resurrection for the pipe organ appeared close at hand.
Resurrection of the Pipe Organ
Just two months later, at 2:30 p.m. on Monday, March 13, 1971 [sic — should be 1972], Moller trucks from Hagerstown, Maryland arrived back in Tyrone at Church of the Good Shepherd to deliver the resurrected pipe organ. Installation commenced the next day, and in a few short weeks, the 1917 Moller pipe organ from Columbia Avenue Methodist Church lived again in a new home — behind the pulpit and altar of Church of the Good Shepherd.
By Memorial Day 1972, Church of the Good Shepherd had opened the doors of its new building for worship. Since that Sabbath morning more than 41 years ago, the 1917 Moller pipe organ has inspired the people of Good Shepherd in congregational hymn singing, in organ solos, and in choir accompaniments. Since 1917, Mrs. Mary Foster Holbrook, Mrs. Versil Schopp, Mrs. Luella Westley, and now Mr. James Beatty all have served faithfully as church organist.
Since 1992, organ engineer John Myers of Sykesville, Maryland has maintained the Good Shepherd pipe organ each year. Mr. Myers indicated that the Good Shepherd organ was a carefully and solidly built instrument. Many of its individual stops remind informed listeners of some of the finest smaller pipe organs in rural England.
In 1917, this eight-rank Moller pipe organ probably cost about $3,300. If The Moller Company gained the contract to build a similar instrument in 2013, the cost would average about $25,000 per rank, for a total of $200,000.
Sadly, in 1992, The Moller Company closed its doors forever boasting a 112-year tenure from 1880 until 1992, during which time they custom built almost 12,000 pipe organs. Twenty years before The Moller Company closed, the people of Columbia Avenue Methodist Church had the foresight to resurrect their 1917 pipe organ even though it had remained entombed in a burned out pipe chamber for nine years.
In Tyrone, only four pipe organs remain: the 1908 Felgemaker–Cannarsa organ at Saint Matthew Roman Catholic Church, the 1956 Estey organ at Trinity Episcopal Church, the 1966 Moller organ at First Lutheran Church, and the 1917/1972 Moller pipe organ at Church of the Good Shepherd.
Around 1787, an American gospel hymn anonymously appeared which included these lyrics: “When through fiery trials, your pathway shall lie / God’s grace, all sufficient, shall be your supply / The flame shall not hurt you, God only designs / Your dross to consume, and Your gold to refine.”
By the grace of God, the flames did not destroy this 1917 Moller pipe organ, but instead, God inspired His people at Columbia Avenue Methodist Church to refine their pipe organ, so that generations yet unborn could hear its “Grand Amen.”
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