2017 report: St. Patrick Church in Erie to restore pipe organ

With the push of a button, Mark Alloway turned on a motor that led to a "whooshing" sound as air loaded in the organ chamber. Then his fingers pressed the keys that caused the first notes of the processional "Rigaudon" to sound forth, vibrating the floorboards of St. Patrick Catholic Church.

"The pipe organ stirs the soul," said Alloway, the downtown Erie church's organist.

But while some whooshing is natural, leaking air reservoirs make it more noticeable up in the balcony at St. Patrick, 130 E. Fourth St., where the pipe organ has been located for more than 100 years. After Christmas, the organ will go quiet while it is restored, a process that is expected to last at least through late spring and cost $432,000.

Monsignor Henry Kriegel, St. Patrick's pastor, said the parish focuses on social outreach, including a soup kitchen and a homeless shelter, and he didn't want to divert any of that money to the organ project. When Morgan Jacox read about the effort to restore the organ and approached Kriegel with a request to be a donor, "it was like an impossible prayer being answered," the priest said.

Jacox and his wife, Kathy Jacox, of Erie, have donated all the money for the organ work in memory of his parents, Eugene and Marjorie Jacox. The elder Jacox couple grew up and were married in Johnsonburg, where Kriegel also grew up, he said.

Alloway called Morgan Jacox an "incredible miracle angel donor" whose gift will continue giving in years to come by touching the people who attend future Masses, weddings, funerals and other services at which the organ is played.

The organ project follows a $1.4 million restoration of the interior of the church completed in 2012 under Kriegel's guidance. The men said the organ work couldn't be done at the same time.

"The music enriches our worship and our prayer," Kriegel said in explaining why the organ is so integral to the church. "We'd be at a great disadvantage if we didn't have it."

An organ has "grandeur. It uplifts and inspires people," Alloway said.

"I always liken it to the breath of the Holy Spirit coming through the pipes," he said. "There's a life there."

Alloway, who has been the music director at St. Patrick for 19 years, said there are problems with the mechanism in the organ chamber, kind of like rust under the hood of a car. It still runs, but not at its best. He said the last major maintenance was done more than 40 years ago.

"The time has come that it really needs (to be) overhauled if it's going to continue to play in the future," he said.

Completed in 1906, the Felgemaker pipe organ was built in Erie and Alloway found the original order for it. It cost about $3,500 at the time, about the equivalent of a little less than $100,000 today. He said it's been appraised at $900,000 in its current condition.

Because the organ originated in Erie, Kriegel and Alloway wanted to keep the restoration work nearby. The contract for the project was awarded to Heritage Pipe Organs of West Valley, New York. Organ Supply Industries of Millcreek Township is building a lot of the components and supplying parts, Alloway said. Kriegel said work began Sept. 15.

"We will be using it through Christmas," Alloway said about the organ. After that, he'll play a piano.

Bryan Timm, an organ builder and vice president at Organ Supply Industries, said the work will include building a new mechanical chassis for the organ and cleaning and regulating its pipework. When the work is done, he said, the organ should be set to go on playing for another 100-plus years.

Timm said his company's employees will put in about 3,500 hours of work on the St. Patrick instrument.

The hope is for the organ to be done in May in time for the wedding season, Alloway and Kriegel said.

The organ at St. Patrick has approximately 3,000 pipes, made of wood or an alloy of tin and lead, ranging from the size of a pencil to 16 feet tall and a foot in diameter, Alloway said. About six dozen of the larger pipes are visible in the balcony at the back of the sanctuary. Most are functional but a few are for decoration. The rest of the working pipes reside in the organ chamber behind the visible pipes.

"It's like a big box of whistles," Alloway said. "Every pipe plays one note."

All the pipes will be maintained, he said, although the wooden racks holding them will be replaced. Digital sounds won't be added.

"If you have something like this, it's worth redoing," Timm said.

The magnitude of sound that comes out of an organ is something that makes it special, he said.

"It's about exciting the space," Timm said. "It does create an energy in the room."

Timm said digital alternatives have a shorter life expectancy. He also said the difference between a handcrafted pipe organ and a digital counterpart is like the difference between sitting in a concert hall listening to a live orchestra and hearing a recording of one.

Some modifications have been made to the St. Patrick organ over the years. The console with its plastic keys, which replaced the original in the mid-1960s, will now also be replaced. Alloway said he's had to put stickers on some of the buttons because the numbers have worn off. The new console and keyboard will be wooden, with a look more complementary to the church architecture and with a computer and additional features to improve the job of playing the organ.

Alloway called the organ "the king of instruments" and said several other downtown Erie churches have "quality" ones.

"Now ours will be on par," he said.

Dana Massing can be reached at 870-1729 or by email. Follow her on Twitter at twitter.com/ETNmassing.

This article originally appeared on Erie Times-News: St. Patrick Church in Erie to restore pipe organ, detailed in this 2017 report