St. Agatha Catholic Church - Upper Arlington, OH

St. Agatha Catholic Church
Upper Arlington, OH
2/43 Bedient
Opus 75 - 2005

organ

A beautiful pipe organ, unique in many ways, is the St. Agatha Catholic Church 2/43 Bedient pipe organ, installed in late 2005. The spectacular, bold statement made by the facade with its silver and gold pipes gives a clue to the organ's colorful capabilities. The organ is voiced in the French Romantic manner meaning it has a warm, rich, smooth sound. The organ's 2,293 pipes completely fill the chamber, and make it the third largest pipe organ in the Columbus Catholic Diocese. As we'll see in the pages, this organ is unique in a number of ways, and has even been featured on the nationally syndicated radio program Pipedreams. Check out the August 21, 2006 program titled New Organs Here and There.

Pipe Organs at St. Agatha

The Bedient is the second pipe organ to hold residence in the current St. Agatha church. At right are photos of the original pipe organ, built and installed by the Delaware Organ Company of Tonawanda, NY in 1977. This was a two manual, 32 rank instrument with a fixed in place console (complete with beautiful green and brown shag carpeting!). This instrument has been relocated and given new lease on life in St. Mark Catholic Church in Lancaster, OH. Check out photos of the organ in its new home here.

Obtaining a pipe organ is a big deal for most parishes. It requires a great deal of planning, coordination, and of course, money. As we can see from the correspondence below, the process to obtain the organ from Delaware Organ took at least two years to plan, design, construct and install. Total cost was $66,000.

Below are a series of articles and other correspondence about the planning, installation and dedication concert. Adobe reader is needed to view these articles. Rotation of the article might be needed to view the article properly.

Proposal by Delaware Organ dated April 15, 1975

Letter of Intent from St. Agatha accepting the April 15, 1975 proposal by Delaware Organ

Details of Construction of the Delaware pipe organ as written by the builder dated May 12, 1975

Specifications of the Delaware pipe organ dated May 12, 1975

Article about dedication of organ to take place on April 3, 1977 (article source unknown)

Dedication concert publicity photo of St. Agatha organ committee members Msgr. George Kennedy (at the time Pastor of St. Agatha), Ralph Negri and Robert Matthews at the console of the new organ (article source unknown).

Dedication concert publicity photo of Dr. William P. Haller who assisted in the design of the pipe organ (article from "The Columbus Dispatch", April 3, 1977).

Delaware Organ photos courtesy of Peebles-Herzog Pipe Organ Company
Newspaper clippings and other Delaware Organ information courtesy of St. Agatha Church

The Bedient pipe organ addressed a number of issues with the Delaware organ. One problem of the Delaware pipe organ was the fact that many of the larger pipes spoke into the front wall of the chamber (behind the mosaic) and under the platform which most of the smaller pipes sat on. Most of the time it is not an issue to have larger pipes speak in less than ideal positions, however due to the configuration of the chamber it limited the sound.

As we crawl through the Bedient organ, we'll see that the organ builder Bedient Pipe Organ Company of Roca, Nebraska had some creative ways of handling the tall, wide, but narrow organ chamber in the church. The document listed below, which at one time was posted on the Bedient web page, describes in detail the facade of the organ and some of the challenges this project presented because of the narrow space.

Information about the St. Agatha Bedient pipe organ (source: Bedient web page)

Parish and Church History

St. Agatha parish was established in 1940, and the current church was completed in 1964. The parish sits geographically in the middle of several other parishes, including St. Andrew Catholic Church and their beautiful Austin Organ. The St. Agatha parish web page has an abundance of information about their parish and church history.

St. Agatha's affection with the organ is long standing. Plaques in one of the hallways leading into the church list the benefactors for the original organ, and the current Bedient organ. The parish also has an organ endowment with the Columbus Catholic Foundation for major repairs and/or replacement of the organ.