Opus 5232 - Part 3

The pipe organ I play at Good Shepherd Acton, Moeller Opus 5232, was built in 1928 for Central Methodist Church in Fort Worth where it was first installed. That congregation had worshiped with a smaller organ they had used for more than a decade. The new organ and wind chest were positioned in the loft at the rear of the sanctuary (as it is in our own church). Larry Bourse of Fort Worth remembers as a teenager in the 1940’s hearing the pipe organ when Boy Scout Troop #42 held special services in the building.

Central Methodist Church, College Avenue, Ft Worth, TX

In the 1960’s Central Methodist Church sold their downtown location and relocated to the South Hulen area. They became Overton Park Methodist. Carol Roszell, Methodist Church archivist, unearthed a couple of references to the instrument from the early records of the Overton Park Church. The organist for many years was Marie Balch Wright. Jack Kyle Daniels writes in his memoirs (A Shot of Jack Daniels, p.117) that Mrs. Wright was a well-known piano teacher in Fort Worth whose students consistently won the National Piano Guild Competition.

Records show that in 1969 there was a lot of discussion about moving the Moeller organ to the new location, but the cost of relocating the old instrument was equal to purchasing a new one. Some of the best pipes, chimes, and bells were taken from the 1928 instrument to be incorporated into their new organ.

The console and wind chest gathered dust and pigeon droppings in the unused building. Trinity Episcopal Church purchased the property in 1972 and two years later turned it over to the Panther Boys’ Club, a branch of the Boys’ Clubs of America. The Boys Club converted the sanctuary of the old church into a boxing arena. Mr. Bourse remembers the old organ in the loft of the church was filthy and covered with paint splatter. They cut what he termed the “umbilical cord” that had connected the console to the wind chest in order to make room in the loft for the place where the officials judged the boxing matches.

In 1975 the Boys Club ran an ad in the Fort Worth paper.

1928 Moeller pipe organ in undetermined condition.
Located at the Panther Boys’ Club on College Ave.

The ad was seen by Genie Guynn who was studying organ and thought how wonderful it would be to have a pipe organ of her own. She contacted Wirt Norris who was President of the Panther’s Boys Club and a member at Trinity Episcopal where Ms. Guynn served as a volunteer assistant organist and choir director. Mr. Norris gave her what was left of the organ. She paid $1,000 to move the old organ to her home where the long process of restoration began.

(To be continued…)

Opus 5232 - Part 2

Opus 5232 - Part 1

I’ve done a little research on the history of the M. P. Moller Pipe Organ Company which manufactured our instrument, the only pipe organ in Hood County.

Mathias Moller was born in Denmark and immigrated to the United States in 1872. Moller worked in Warren, Pennsylvania as a woodworker for a furniture manufacturing firm. In Erie, Pa., he got a job with organ builders, Derrick & Felgemaker. Moller returned to Warren, where he built his own pipe organ in 1875. A year later, he went to Philadelphia, where he manufactured and sold four pipe organs before moving his operation to Greencastle, Pa., in 1877. Moller placed an organ in the Reformed Church in Greencastle on trial.

When Moller was unsuccessful at securing financing from the Greencastle banks to expand his business, the city of Hagerstown, Maryland took notice of Moller’s early successes and induced him to move his business to Hagerstown in April 1881 to help make Hagerstown a viable business center in Western Maryland. The result was M. P. Moller, Inc. The company remained in business until 1992, with a production of over 11,000 instruments. Each instrument was assigned an Opus number. Our organ is Opus 5232, made in 1928. Moller thought that anyone who wanted a pipe organ should be able to buy one. So, prior to World War II, Moller mass-produced smaller pipe organs with fewer pipes for churches, restaurants, and private homes.

After the WWII, Moller switched to making largely custom organs. Their instruments are in some of the largest churches around the world. The company did not keep up with changing technology and after several attempts to revive the business failed, the company went bankrupt in 1992.

(More to follow ...)