Cleveland church's pipe organ goes silent
CLEVELAND -- For the first time since 1932 the glorious sounds of an elaborate pipe organ will not be reverberating through St. Vitus Church.
The organ, built and installed by the Votteler-Holtkamp-Sparling Organ Company, is being dismantled for its first repairs and reconditioning in 77 years.
"Over the years the leather and some of the electrical components just get worn out," said George Cooper of Cleveland's Holtkamp Organ Company, successor to the original company which built the organ at St. Vitus during the Great Depression.
"We don't expect our leather shoes to last for 50, 60 years, and likewise the leather components in the organ deteriorate and need reconditioned and replaced," Cooper explained, as a crew of six methodically began removing the 900 pipes lining the choir loft of the historic church.
"We start with the pipes you can get to the easiest and those are the facade pipes, the ones that have the painted color on them," Cooper continued while the rest of the crew carefully placed the pipes in well-lined wooden boxes for transport.
"We had a choice of fixing the original organ or buying a new one," said Stan Kuhar of St. Vitus parish. "Restoration will cost upwards of $200,000. A new organ would have cost as much as $600,000.
When St. Vitus pastor Rev. Bartholomew Ponikvar signed a contract to purchase the organ on April 10, 1932, the agreed upon price was $11,000, a sizeable sum considering it was during the Depression.
Kuhar said generous donations from parishioners and foundations are making restoration of the massive musical instrument possible.
The largest pipes are 16 feet long and will probably be disassembled last. The smallest are only three-eighths of an inch across. Taking apart the organ will take about a week and it should be reinstalled around October.
The church itself underwent a massive renovation which was completed in 1993, the centennial of the founding of St. Vitus, which remains the largest Slovenian parish in the United States.Source: http://www.wkyc.com/news/local/news_article.aspx?storyid=114987&catid=45
