Making a Joyful Noise

As the triumphant and majestic sound of the tonally redesigned organ gave way to thunderous applause from an audience that jumped to their feet, having no intention of waiting for the lights to come up, the evening's silent film The Hunchback of Notre Dame (1923) came to an end. Young and old alike marveled at the virtuosity of Clark Wilson and his command of the fifty-three-rank symphonic organ.

The road to this splendid film event stretches back 127 years. In the mid-1890s The Organ Club rapidly moved to provide St. John's Lutheran, Bellevue, Ohio, with a pipe organ. The John Sole tracker, 1895-1933, served the parish leading Lutheran services and anniversary celebrations until a larger organ was needed to fill those roles. From 1934-1959, the Knapp Memorial Organ picked up where the Sole organ left off. No detailed records of this organ exist. With the growth of the parish a larger church edifice was built and a new pipe organ from the Toledo Pipe Organ Company (TPOC) was installed in 1961-62. After serving St. John's until 1997, the Bunn Minnick Pipe Organ Company of Columbus, Ohio, removed the TPOC organ for repair, re-wiring, re-leathering, and expansion, which eventually brought the instrument to its present fifty-three ranks. The Bunn Minnick organ, 1997-2017, evolved from purely religious duties to a wider use for public concerts and films. The final act in the history of the organs of St. John's occurred with the major tonal re-design of the Bunn Minnick instrument from 2018-2021.

This historical monograph traces in detail the development of these four organs, their evolving use, and the parishioners, citizenry and youth of Bellevue, Ohio, that contributed to this 127-year-old musical journey.