Our most recent project completed is the reinstallation of the organ at Community of Grace United Methodist in Huntington. Community of Grace is a merger of three United Methodist churches at the former Highlawn UMC building. The building has been extensively remodeled with spacious organ rooms in the front of the church. The organ is an instrument which we have relocated once already! The ca. 1940 Moller organ was originally installed at Seventh Ave. UMC (a.k.a. St. Luke's UMC). We removed the organ from the St. Luke's building in 1995, and reinstalled it at the Faith UMC (f.k.a. Otterbein UMC) building in 1997. The reinstallation in 1997 was one of the unhappiest jobs in the history of our company; a combination of factors conspired to make for a very comprimised arrangement, with some pipes being around two corners from the tone opening! Despite this, the organ sounded surprisingly good. We added a Mixture to the organ in 1999. Fast forward to last year, the organ was removed from the Faith UMC building when Marshall University bought the property for expansion of their facilities. Reinstallation began in January of 2010, and finished in late April. The ghosts of 1997 are gone; all the problems associated with the last location have been corrected and all the pipes can speak directly into the sanctuary. The Cornet in the Swell division, which was inaudible before, is now right behind the swell shades and is simply gorgeous. And if that wasn't enough, the organ will be added to with a 16' Contra Trumpet (extension of the Swell Trumpet), a 32' Resultant, and an 8' Unda Maris to go with the Great Dulciana.
Other projects coming up include a repitching (to A=440) of the organ at Central UMC, Fairmont; releathering a batch of pneumatic switches at Baptist Temple in Charleston; a new combination action for the Holtkamp organ at Blacksburg Presbyterian in Blacksburg, Virginia; and a console rebuild and Trumpet addition at Main St. UMC in Tazewell, Virginia.
Chris Nagorka
