Glen Ridge Congregational Church 

About the instrument

Though none of the pipes are visible, the sanctuary of Glen Ridge Congregational Church houses a 68-rank pipe organ disposed over five divisions. The Swell division is in the left (pulpit side) chamber as you face the chancel. The Choir division is in the right (lectern side) chamber. The Great, Solo and Pedal divisions are behind the Angel reredos in the center of the chancel, as well as in front of the Choir division in the right chamber. The organ was originally built in 1914 by the M.P. Moller Pipe Organ Company of Hagerstown, Maryland. It was partially rebuilt in 1976 by the Hartman-Beaty Pipe Organ Company of Englewood, NJ. Further rebuilding was completed in 1985 by former GRCC organist, David Messineo, as well as the installation of a new console by the Schantz Pipe Organ Company of Ohio.

In April 2023, the current refurbishment project began when the console combination action failed and the switching systems were gradually failing. The current organ curators, the Peragallo Pipe Organ of Paterson, New Jersey were engaged to assess the needs of the instrument. Their team removed the organ console in early September 2023.  In December they returned the console replacing the inner controls and all the wiring connecting the console to the organ chambers and individual pipes.

To summarize, the work completed by the Peragallo Company:

·       Console refinished and rebuilt to accommodate the new additions

·       New key contacts on all manuals and pedals

·       New drawknobs and tilt tablets replaced

·       New thumb and toe pistons

·       New noiseless solid-state digital organ control system, eliminating switch contacts

·       New solid state power supplies

·       Multi-level combination system, increasing the memory levels from 4 to 256.

·       Added casters to the console so it may be moved throughout the chancel as needed.

The organ console being removed and rebuilt provided the perfect opportunity to add digital pipe ranks to the organ, since there is no space available in the chambers for additional pipes. 18 digitally sampled ranks, created by the Walker Technical Company were added, including a new floating Solo division, playable from any of the three manuals or pedals.

Click here to  view the organ specifications.