Church finally gets $325,000 pipe organ

PHOENIXVILLE, Pa. - July 12, 2010

Some assembly required.

A moving truck filled with 30,000 pieces made the delivery. When it's finally put together, it will be the featured attraction of the 161-year-old congregation on Main Street.

"We've been waiting, looking at pictures of it, asking lots of questions, lots of excitement and, to hear it play, is the big thing," said Pastor Dave McCabe.

The church spent five years saving and fundraising for the $325,000 needed to buy the organ.

The organ will have 1,600 pipes, nine octaves, three manual keyboards, a pedal board and a white oak with walnut interior.

The manufacturer spent six months putting it together and then taking it apart for shipment from its Ohio factory.

They promise it will sound as a church pipe organ should - beautiful.

"Rich, warm, embracing kind of a sound. So it will be thrilling, and a really happy sound for people to listen to, very familiar," said Charles Kegg of Kegg Pipe Organ Builders.

They will spend the next three days assembling the organ at the church, the next two weeks tuning it, and then after that - practice begins.

Mary Nicol is First Presbyterian's organist, and is so excited about playing their new instrument, she is admittedly nervous. Her debut is set for Sunday, September 12th.

"It is so much more beautiful than what we had, and will be able to serve the congregation for generations," Nicol said. "This is something we are doing for the future."

The congregation has spent more than one million dollars renovating their church, and believe this latest addition will be yet another feather in the cap of this revitalized Chester County borough.

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