History Of The M.P. Moller Company Church Pipe Organ
At First Christian Church in Hagerstown, Maryland

– by Leon Cross, May 2005

 The pipe organ of First Christian Church has a unique history for several reasons.  First, it was originally built by the M.P. Moller Company of Hagerstown for Temple Adath Israel located in Bronx, New York in 1935.  Its cost in 1935 was $4,000.  For some unknown reason however, the Moller Company had to take back the organ.  The same organ was then reengineered for the former church building on South Potomac Street shortly thereafter. When the current church was built here in 1960, the pipe organ was moved to its present location.  The total cost for the move in addition to tonal revisions and reengineering was $18,650.

 In 1970, a new console was purchased with additional stop controls so that pipes could be added.  This new console cost $12,470.  Over the past 30 years, many additional sets of pipes have been added to the organ. All of these pipe sets came from other churches, making the pipe organ of First Christian Church of Hagerstown a truly ecumenical instrument.  Following is a list of the churches that have provided these to this organ:

• The Harp came from the Suter-Rouzer Funeral Home (now Gerald Minnich) of Hagerstown.
• The 8’ Principal came from Trinity Lutheran Church, Camp Hill, PA
• The 8’ Bourdon came from First Presbyterian Church, Summit, NJ
• The 8’ Trumpet is from St. Paul’s United Methodist Church, Westminster, MD
• The 16’ Contra Fagott is from Peachtree United Methodist Church in Atlanta, GA
• The 8’ Harmonic Flute came from The Chapel at Princeton Theological Seminary, Princton, NJ
• The Zimbelstern (the little bells often heard at Christmas) was salvaged from a Presbyterian Church in Cincinnati, OH, that was burned by an arsonist.  Other than being “slightly toasted,” it works just fine.

All of these sets of pipes came from churches which had decided, for a variety of reasons, to purchase new pipes. These replacements were done to add different or new sounds. Once installed on this organ, they were re-voiced (adjusting of the sound quality and volume) so that they would blend appropriately with the original sets of pipes.

In April 1996, the Trancept Great chest, two sets of pipes (The Quintflute and the Gemshorn), and casework was purchased from the Trinity Lutheran Church here in Hagerstown, MD.  The Principal and Mixture ranks were purchased and made by the Eastern Organ Pipes, Inc. also of Hagerstown. An electronic 16’ Gedeckt pedal was also purchased at this time. These have been installed as the Antiphonal Organ on the rear gallery wall. Work began on the installation of the Antiphonal Organ in August 1996 and was completed by the end of October 1996.  At the same time, the console was sent out to the Hagerstown Organ Company and converted to solid state, with eight levels of memory. Also an electronic 32’ Bourdon stop was added at this time.

In the fall of 1996, the Rev. Steven Fleming and his wife, Brenda, donated the Trompette en Chamade (horizontal trumpet) in memory and honor of their parents, Leon & Doris Cross and Marie Barnhart and the late Karl Barnhart.  It is on 9½” of wind pressure and lies atop the Great/Choir chest.

In January 1999, Greg and Kathy Martin purchased and donated the 32’ electronic Contra Fagott stop in honor of their son, Kyle Martin. Previously, Mr. & Mrs. Martin had the transposer installed on the console after its conversion to solid-state technology in 1996.  In 2000, Mr. & Mrs. Martin’s generosity permitted the installation of the 8’ Flute Celeste stop and a solid state control to increase the combination memories from 8 to 32.

In 2002, all pneumatic relays were replaced with solid state circuitry.  The entire organ is now controlled with solid state technology. Also, during this year, three reservoirs were recovered, 32 expression pneumatics were converted and the great chest was recovered to unit action.  This project was paid for by the Trustees, a lot of the work on the chest was done by Gary Watson, Don Richardson, Al Prytherch, Rod Reed, and Leon Catlett.  Nancy Cross helped with releathering the reservoirs, and with tuning.

In 2003, an electronic 16’ Violone stop was installed on the pedal organ.  This was given in memory of Dennis Taylor. During February 2005, I removed the present chimes and harp from our organ.  Both of these units needed to be totally rebuilt to keep them in working order.  Because of health problems, this was more than I could do.

I had heard some Walker electronic installations that were excellent in duplicating real chimes and harp sounds.  After talking with Greg Martin, we decided to purchase a chime, harp and celesta unit.  I purchased the chimes and harp because I had given the original chimes in honor of my parents, Hoye and Goldie Cross. I had also purchased the harp in honor of my daughter, Brenda.

Greg and Kathy purchased the celesta in memory of Don Ruth, who served our church many years as organist.

The original chimes had 21 notes, the new one 32; the original harp had 49 notes, the new one 61; and, the celesta has 61 notes.

At present, the pipe organ of first Christian Church, in Hagerstown has a total of 38 ranks (sets) of organ pipes which add up to a total of 2,213 individual pipes. The present replacement cost of the organ is $600,000.  However, with the demise of the M.P. Moller Pipe Organ Company, once the world’s largest builder of pipe organs, the Organ of First Christian Church could not truly be replaced at any cost.

JUST A NOTE: Mr. Leon Cross, the author of this history of the pipe organ at First Christian Church in Hagerstown, worked for the M.P. Moller Company for 42 years until his retirement.  He currently lends his expertise to the Hagerstown Organ Company. As a master organ builder and technician, he has worked on many of the premier pipe organs on this country. The First Christian Church wishes to acknowledge and thank Mr. Cross for his tireless efforts and contributions to our magnificent instrument.

A NOTE FROM MR. CROSS: This will probably be the last work I will be able to do other than tuning.  Because of arthritis and myasthenia gravis, it is getting increasingly difficult for me to work on the organ. I want to thank the Trustees, Board members, and the congregation for allowing me to do what, I felt, would make our organ one of the best in the area.  It has been a labor of love and I am sorry I am unable do it anymore.