St. Mark Catholic Church
Lancaster, OH
2/31 Delaware
1977/2008
It used to be that
discarded pipe
organs were, well, discarded. History has countless examples of organs
being literally thrown away and the pipes sold for scrap or even put in
a pile and burned. Many theater pipe organs simply were left in place
and destroyed along with the buildings they sat in. Today most pipe
organs which are no longer needed are at minimum dismantled and all
usable parts stored. The environmental terms "reuse" and "recycle" can
be applied here. Some pipe organs are lucky enough to simply be moved
from one location to another. This is the case of the two manual,
thirty one rank pipe organ at St. Mark Catholic Church in Lancaster,
OH. What one parish no longer needed became something which another
could use.
Parish
History
St. Mark Catholic Church
parish is located
southeast of downtown
Lancaster, OH in the scenic rolling hills of Fairfield County. It was
established in 1959 with the current church building
completed in
1961. At
one time the parish supported a grade school (grades 1-6) and
a convent. Both have since been closed. The parish concluded
its year-long 50th anniversary celebration in September 2009.
The
Organ
The parish has been the
host of three organs in its history.
The first organ, obtained at an unknown date, was purchased with TV
stamps donated by parishioners. The second organ was a Johannus Opus
230
Deluxe model electronic organ purchased new in March 1986 for $15,000.
This organ still remains in the church. (source: "St. Mark Catholic
Church, 50th Anniversary, 1959-2009", p. 16)
In 2005, St.
Agatha Catholic Church in Upper Arlington, OH was getting ready to install
their new Bedient
pipe organ,
thus had a spare pipe organ on their hands. St. Mark parish became the
beneficiary and obtained the old St. Agatha organ for free.
The
only expenses incurred by St. Mark parish were for the removal,
transportation, and installation of the organ in their church. All of
this work was done by church volunteers. Though some work remains, the
majority of the work was completed in 2008. The date 1977 at the top of
the page refers to the date the organ was originally installed in St.
Agatha church.
Credits
and Links
I would like to thank
Fr. Peter Gideon and Theresa Brunney of St.
Mark parish their assistance. Thanks also to Lynn Slimmer of
Peebles-Herzog pipe organs, and Clark Wilson of Clark Wilson &
Associates for
providing information about the instrument and builder.