The church has a magnificent organ with a long history.

The original pipe organ was built in St. Louis by Kilgen and located in an earlier church building. The organ had 884 pipes. There was no electricity, so a hand pump created pressure to voice the organ pipes.

That organ was moved into the new church building (the present site) in 1909, but was ruined in a major 1918 church fire in 1918 that destroyed the entire church building.

In 1926, the church had rebuilt on the current location. The sanctuary featured a new Austin Pipe Organ. (Opus Number 1,360) That organ had fewer pipes, but was electrically powered. (The 1926 specification at right)

Over the years, additional stops (set of pipes) were added through memorials and gifts. These included Chimes (1933), Vox Humana (1947), Clarinet (1947) and Echo Organ (1951) located in the church balcony.

The organ was rebuilt in 1974-75 by Michael Quimby who established Quimby Pipe Organs that currently builds and maintains over 100 pipe organs.

That work removed 305 pipes replacing them with 244 new pipes. The rebuilt organ has 24 ranks and nearly 1,600 pipes.

“Contrary to popular belief, the rebuilt instrument is no louder,” the April 1975 program for the re-dedicatory recital noted. “The new additions to the instrument now add more harmonic development to the musical sound which were never before present in the old instrument. In essence what is now being mistaken for volume is actually harmonic or musical development.”

The additions made the organ more serviceable for congregational singing and functional for solo playing.

The program noted: “The end result is now an instrument capable of recital performances and that is capable of recital performances and that is of a style capable of handling a wide spectrum of music literature.”

A new organ console was installed in 1984 with several new ranks added. The revised organ contains 1,808 pipes ranging in size from 32 feet tall to a quarter of an inch.

Information drawn from an article on church music by Mark McGuire and documents in the church archives.