Popularity of Pipe Organs
in Churches

Pipe Organs and Contemporary Christian Music

U.S. pipe organ makers reported building only 91 instruments in 2010, down 14% from 2009 and 40% from 2008, according to the Organ Historical Society in Richmond, Va.

A small church in a suburb … that previously might have bought a small pipe organ, now maybe buys an electric organ or a guitar or a bass drum, says Scot Huntington, president of the historical society.

For churches hoping to draw more young people to worship services, the pipe organ sounds out-of-date, says Josh Hunt, a Baptist pastor and national consultant to churches trying to increase membership.

"Young people today don't listen to pipe organ music on their iPods," he says.

A nice summarization of this delimia is found in the article A church closes, but where does its pipe organ go? ⁽¹⁾

Industry Shrinking

Contemporary Christian Music is following in the footsteps of popular music. In its early stages that included Folk Music styles, but has come to be more influenced by various Rock styles and Country music. None of those styles use pipe organs for accompaniment.

With the rapid rise of preferences for various styles of Contemporary Christian Music among new generations of church goers, there has been wholesale replacement of the older traditional hymns, accompanied by a considerable decrease in the popularity of pipe organs over the years. As a result, a number of formerly quite successful pipe organ builders have gone out of business. Examples include:

• Estey Organ Company of Brattleboro, VT from 1852 to 1953.
  The Rieger Organ, Inc. of New Jersey acquired control in 1953.  Subsequently, Fletcher Music Centers in 1989 bought the name.
• The Los Angeles Art Organ Co., built the largest still functional pipe organ, which was built for the 1904 St. Louis World's Fair. (That organ originally operated from 1903 to 1905 before being placed in storage. In 1909 it was bought by John Wanamaker for his new department store at 13th and Market Streets in Center City, Philadelphia. That store is now a Macy's and the organ is still referred to as the Wanamaker Grand Court Organ.)
• Æolian-Skinner Organ Company, Inc. of Boston, Massachusetts from its inception as the Skinner Organ Company in 1901 until its closure in 1972, the year following their installation of the pipe organ at Kennedy Center in Washington, DC, and 4 years after their installation in the main body of National Presbyterian Church and Center, Washington, DC in 1968.
• M.P. Moller Pipe Organ Company founded by Mathias Peter Möeller in Greencastle, Pennsylvania, in 1875. The city of Hagerstown, Maryland induced him to move his business there in 1881 to help make Hagerstown a viable business center in Western Maryland. The company remained in business until 1992.
• Hinners Organ Company of Pekin, Illinois. Established 1879 and closed in 1942. Business declined in the 1930s due to the Great Depression, changing technology, and increasing competition.  By being among the first to make his products widely affordable to ordinary people across rural America, John Hinners has been compared to both Henry Ford and Aaron Montgomery Ward.

Footnotes

¹ A church closes, but where does its pipe organ go?, Holly Meyer, The Tennessean, May 4, 2017, https://www.tennessean.com/story/news/nation-now/2017/05/04/pipe-organ-surplus/310491001/, accessed 10-28-2020

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