Every pipe organ has a story, and the three manual, 54 rank Muller Pipe Organ inside St. Paul Catholic Church in Westerville, OH has had quite a journey. From its conception on paper to final installation, the organ's design could be considered "fluid" with the numerous changes made along the way. However, the end result validates that all of the changes and effort were well worth the effort.

Parish and Church History

St. Paul parish was established in 1913 to serve as a mission church for Catholics in the areas around the northeast Columbus suburb of Westerville. Today it is the largest parish in the Columbus Catholic Diocese with over 14,000 members according to its webpage.

After meeting in various rented spaces, the mission built its first church building in 1931. The mission formally became a parish in 1951 and continued to grow with its second church building finished in 1968 to keep up with the expanding population. The current church was completed in June 2011. It is not known whether the 1931 structure had a pipe organ. The 1968 church had a two manual Allen electronic organ built in 1980.
 
Organ Design

Though the organ was not built when the current church was built, preparations were made for when one was installed. In spite of these preparations, there still were a number of unknowns which affected the design of the Muller instrument, most notably being the large distance between the rail division and the rest of the organ in the loft.

Initially the organ's layout had the Swell and Choir divisions in the main case and the Great on the rail. However it was felt that a better overall blend could be attained by moving the Choir to the rail and the Great into the main case. This also resulted in some ranks being moved between divisions to again balance the sound.

For additional information about the design of the organ, the organ dedication program has a very well-written description of the instrument. Click here to be taken to the article (reprinted with permission from Muller Pipe Organ Company).

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