Saint Peter's Roman Catholic Church

St. Peter, MN 56082

(See additional entries for Hendrickson organs at this location.)
Builder: Estey Organ Co, Op. 1021, 1912.
Manuals: 2
Ranks: 10
Action: Tubular pneumatic

Notes: Organ Historical Society as of 2012.
The Estey was failing during the 1970's, with leather disintegrating and perhaps even splits in the main chest. There were always dead notes and ciphers. The only way to successfully play it was to have all stops and couplers on. This allowed air to escape the action to prevent ciphers and ensured something was playing on every note. During these years I was organist at First Lutheran and a Thanksgiving Eve service alternated between First Lutheran and St. Peter's. The year it was at St. Peter's, their organist was terrified to play so she asked me. Knowing the state of the organ, I brought in a trumpet player from Gustavus and turned on everything in the organ. Many First Lutheran people came, and they were much more accustomed to singing than were the St. Peter's members. Only after the service did I learn that the choir was so excited by the singing that their acappella anthem went seriously sharp. The priest also told me he had no idea the organ could sound like that, and why were we trying to get it replaced? In the new organ, the 8' Open Diapason and 16' Bourdon were retained for the pedal, along with the 8' Dulciana which was rescale into a 4' Choralbass -- David Engen


GREAT ORGAN
8 Open Diapason
8 Melodia
8 Dulciana
4 Flute d’Amour
Gt Unison Off
Sw/Gt (16-8-4)

SWELL ORGAN
8 Stopped Diapason
8 Viol d’Orchestre
8 Salicional
4 Flute Harmonic
8 Oboe (TC)
Tremolo
Sw/Sw (16-4)
Sw Unison Off

PEDAL ORGAN
16 Bourdon
Gt/Ped
Sw/Ped