They purchased their organ used from a girl's school in New York state in the early 1960's for $50,000.  Its pipes were made out of wood and metal, and were concealed in an organ loft at the front of the sanctuary.  I well remember that when the preacher was nearing the end of his sermon, he gave a tug on the bottom edge of his coat.  This was a signal to the organist to turn the organ on, since it took a minute or two for the blowers to spin up to maximum speed.

Few churches consider installing a new pipe organ now, primarily because of changing music styles and the introduction of electronic organs that can imitate the sound of a pipe organ.

Another reason is that there are fewer musicians who know how to play a pipe organ.  Many of the master organists are retired or have passed on, and few young people are training to take their place.

You might think that anyone who plays the piano could play a pipe organ, but that's not true.  While the keys are arranged the same, the touch of the keys is much different. 

On a piano, the keys are "struck", but on an organ, the hands "slur" from key to key.  On a piano there is one keyboard, but on an organ there may be five for the hands and one for the feet.  It takes tremendous skill and physical coordination to play a pipe organ well.

In addition to the multiple keyboards, the organ has a series of "stops", which control the many different sounds that organ can make.  As I recall, the organ in my hometown church had about forty of these.

The pipe organ is really a complicated mechanical device.  It is made up of three major parts - the keyboards (also called manuals), the pipes, and the mechanism or "action".

The keyboards for the hands are arranged one over another and staggered from front to back to allow the organist to reach each keyboard easily.  These, along with the keyboard for the feet, are called the "console".

The pipes are made of either wood or metal, depending on the type of sound that is to be made.  The pitch of the sound depends on the length of the pipe - short pipes make high-pitched sounds, and long pipes make low-pitched sounds.  I have seen one organ whose shortest pipe was one-third of an inch long, and longest was thirty-three feet long.

The pipes are fabricated to make different kinds of sounds, some similar to other instruments, such as brass or reed instruments.  For each type of sound there is a full set (or "rank") of pipes, from low to high pitch, that are arranged in a row.  These are turned on or off by the stop levers on the keyboard, which controls a single board that slides over the pipe air inlets.

The pipes stand in holes in an air-tight chest that is filled with air by a bellows or fan that pumps air into the chest under pressure.  When a key on the console is pressed, a series of cranks, levers or electric actuators operates a valve, allowing air to pass into the pipe.

Some organs have pipes that number in the thousands, giving them an enormous variety of individual sounds or combinations of sounds.

In the case of my hometown church, the pipes were not meant to be seen.  They were quite rough in appearance, so they were hidden in a tone chamber, or loft, but many churches have organs whose pipes are constructed as a work of art.  These are usually constructed of polished metals such as steel or brass.

The organ is actually an ancient instrument, dating back to the 3rd century B.C. when the earliest known organ was thought to have been invented by the Greek engineer Ctesibius.  Its mechanism was partially filled with water, and thus was known as a hydraulis.

The organ came into wide use in churches by the 8th or 9th century, and become more highly developed between the 1300's and 1400's.  Very few new developments to the organ were made until the 1800's.
The organ became unpopular in the 17th century, but came back into favor in the mid-19th century.

Perhaps the organ will make a comeback for us some day.  At the hands of a skilled musician, anyone who has ever heard the beauty of this marvelous instrument will never forget it.