A New Home

When the church was built in 1948, then pastor Father Albert Culliton made sure that an organ loft was built in back even though the parish did not have enough money to purchase an organ. The intent was that "eventually" the space would be filled.

Fast forward almost 60 years to the year 2005. The church still had not filled the space with a pipe organ, though an electronic organ had been installed some years ago. Former pastor Msgr. John Cody received a call from a fellow priest indicating that an organ might be available. Then Music Director Mark Voris recalls, "We had just met a month earlier and I told Msgr. Cody unless someone calls and gives us an organ for free, we aren't getting one anytime soon. A month later we got the call."

The call was about a local businessman who had purchased the former First Baptist Church on East Broad Street in Columbus and was transforming it into an establishment called the Bar of Modern Art. The former church was to be completely renovated into a restaurant, art gallery, and night club. This meant the organ had to be removed, but instead of throwing it away the owner searched for a new home.

St. Christopher was given the organ for free, however it was up to them to remove the organ. Once removed, the organ was stored for a year before being worked on for another year. Total cost to accomplish this was around $160,000 which is small considering a new organ of the same size might cost three to four times as much. Voris lauded the talents of the volunteers in the parish. "The volunteers saved the parish thousands of dollars by donating their time and talents in preparing the space and helping with the installation. They did an amazing job."

Pieces Parts

To say that this organ was built by Peebles-Herzog is somewhat of a misnomer. Peebles-Herzog did the majority of the restoration and installed the organ, however the organ is a mixture of pipes from several builders. The organ when removed from First Baptist Church had pipes from builders A.W. Brandt Co., Muller, Estey, and Schantz (the console was also built by Schantz). Despite it being assembled from multiple builders, the sound is truly unified and sounds as if it all came from the same builder. Give credit to Peebles-Herzog for exhibiting their expertise in tonal design and voicing. 

Credits and Links

Thanks to the staff at St. Christopher for their assistance. Some informational material was also obtained from The Catholic Times, "Pipe Organ Finds New Life at St. Christopher Church" by Tim Puet, January 27, 2008, p. 20.

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