Hendrickson in the News

Charles Hendrickson, of St. Peter, Minn., shows the inside of the organ chamber at Salem Lutheran Church in Lake Mills. Hendrickson's company restored the church's pipe organ.

The organ pipes were singing Sunday afternoon at the Salem Lutheran Church and the Lake Mills school. Members of the North Iowa Chapter of the American Guild of Organists listened and laughed as Charles Hendrickson talked about their favorite topic---organs. Hendrickson owns and operates Hendrickson Organ Comany in St. Peter, MN.

Sitting behind the keyboard of the Kilgen tracker organ at the Lake Mills School, Hendrickson called it a very high-quality instrument popular in this country in the mid-1900s. He explained that the Kilgen family re-located from Germany to St. Louis in 1910. "They made several of these types of organs," he said. "This is a smaller type of organ and it is somewhat rare to find one today."

Virginia Thomas, historian and the Lake Mills choral director, explained that the 1907-model organ was taken from the Salem Lutheran Church in 1919 and put in storage. It was relocated in the new school building in 1928. "The only reason it was located here was because of the foresight of the architect who included an organ room in the blueprint," Thomas said. "It is somewhat unusual for a school to have an organ."

Hendrickson showed a slide show which he said included helpful and humorous information for members of the organ guild. "There are a lot of different reasons why organs don't always sound like you expect them to sound," he said. Hendrickson explained that he finished restoring the Salem Lutheran Church organ about a year ago. "It is a large and fussy project," he said. "It almost takes more time to do it than it would take to install a new organ."

Hendrickson said the organ had a large physical change in the 1950s. "There is not much left from the original instrument," he said. "But we saved more than half of the pieces this time." There are 1,100 pipes in the large organ. Deep notes come from the large wood pipes, with higher notes coming from metal pipes. "This is a mid-sized organ," he said while standing in a small room at the front of the church which houses many of the pipes.

Priscilla Waitek, dean of the North Iowa Chapter of the American Guild of Organists, said Sunday's presentation was the group's regular monthly meeting. "We have monthly meetings to promote and educate people," she said. "We'd particularly like to spark the interest in young people. If we can interest young people, it will help keep a future supply of organists."

Waitek and Margaret Hoffman of Mason City established a scholarship fund through the North Iowa Area Community College Foundation. Approximately 12 young musicians are benefiting from the scholarships.