When St. Mark's church was built in 1869, it contained an organ of fairly good size - two manuals and 28 stops - built by the distinguished New York firm headed by the English-born George Jardine. This instrument served the congregation well until 1911. This first instrument was operated my means of a directly controlled or "tracker" action.

     During the general remodeling of the church, financed by Mary Packer Cummings, the Jardine instrument was replaced by the three manual Austin organ presently in use. The Austin organ has an electro-pneumatic action that was state of the art for its day. A few sets of pipes were reused from the Jardine organ, but the Austin was essentially a new instrument in 1911. The Austin is a period piece, designed more for its instrumental sound than for leading congregational singing.

     Except for routine tuning and maintenance, the organ remained as it was installed until 1975. In that year, extensive mechanical repairs were made to the actions and wind chests. In the early 1990's a new console replaced the original and a new action-current rectifier was installed.

     In the winter of 1996-1997, a storm damaged the roof over the organ chamber and some water damage was done to the interior. The plaster ceiling had become powdery and some plaster had fallen into the pipes. Although pipes in the swell organ were spared some damage due to their protected position inside the swell box, dust had circulated inside the wind chest and eventually got into the interior pipes as well. In addition, the softened plaster of the ceiling began to absorb the sound of the organ instead of reflecting it out into the nave of the church.

     Due to this situation, the parish has undertaken an extensive organ restoration project. In May of 1999, every pipe, all 1,600 of them, were removed by volunteers from the parish under the supervision of Mr. Ray Brunner, a noted Lancaster County, Pennsylvania organ builder. The pipes were taken to Mr. Brunner's Silver Spring, Pa. shop where they were cleaned and refurbished. In October 19, 1999 the cleaned and refurbished pipes were returned to the church and re-installed. Wile the pipes were gone, the plaster ceiling of the organ chamber was replaced to restore its tonal qualities. Repairs were also made to the actions as needed and the swell shade motors were replaced.

     Now that the repairs have been completed, 8 new ranks of pipes will be added and several of the existing ranks will be re-voiced. The new instrument will more closely resemble the tonal qualities of the original organ and will be better suited for leading congregational singing as well as for playing a broader range of music.

     Cassette tapes of church hymns and a variety of classical music performed on this instrument by Randall D. Perry are available at the church or by mail. Please call the parish office weekdays between 9:00 AM and 1:00 PM for mail orders. Price $ 10.00 plus shipping.