Rev. Birgit Solano, the long-time pastor at Good Shepherd Lutheran Church in Weehawken, first noticed four years ago that the church’s organ, which is almost 90 years old, wasn’t playing as proudly as it once did.
“It would only play on one side,” Solano said. “When we did play the organ, it sounded weak. I knew something was wrong.”
Closer examination of the organ showed extensive damage. A leak in the roof had caused water to fall into the organ’s pipes, both the metal and wooden ones. Plaster from the roof had also collected in the pipes and in the main mechanisms of the organ.
Solano started to advertise to see if someone would be able to repair the organ.
“Some of the estimates I received were $50,000 to repair it,” Solano said. “How would we be able get something like that? It was almost impossible. If we weren’t able to repair it, we were going to have to keep using it the way it was.”
Enter Jan VanDerStad, who charged much less than $50,000. A 23-year-old aficionado of pipe organs since he was a little boy, VanDerStad had sent letters to nearly 1,000 churches in the New York/New Jersey metropolitan area, informing them of his ability to repair and restore pipe organs.
VanDerStad said that he became interested in church pipe organs when he was 3 years old.
“It fascinated me,” VanDerStad said. “The first one I saw was in the Netherlands Reformed Church in Clifton, and that fascination of seeing the pipe organ and hearing it stayed with me. I tried to build my first organ out of Legos when I was three. I tried to make it work, but it didn’t. When I got older, I had to know how they worked.”
One of the first jobs he had in high school was to work with a local organ tuner.
“I held down the organ keys while the tuner worked on the organ,” VanDerStad said.
VanDerStad was introduced to Alan Ontko, the proprietor of Ontko Pipe Organs, which was once based in New Jersey, but has since moved to Charleston, S.C.
“I would spend the summers in South Carolina, working with Ontko and getting my training to work with organs,” VanDerStad said. “I would work in the shop and help with installments and repairs. I received my formal training from him.”
After receiving enough training, VanDerStad began his own organ maintenance company while attending Fairleigh Dickinson-Florham to receive a degree in business management.
One of the tools he used to drum up business was to send out the mass mailing.
“I just sent a cold letter to about 1,000 churches,” VanDerStad said.
One of the first people to contact VanDerStad was Pastor Solano. He decided to pay a visit to the church to inspect the damage.
“When I first saw the organ, I was so disheartened,” VanDerStad said. “It had been the victim of abuse. For several years, it had been maintained poorly. Plaster came down into the pipes. There were bent pipes and damaged pipes. It was really in unnecessary disrepair. Weather gets into everything. Once we started opening up the organ, I noticed there were a lot of problems.”
VanDerStad then got into the history of the organ at Good Shepherd.
“I found out that it was originally built in 1916, by the Wicks Organ Company of Highland, Illinois,” VanDerStad said. “It’s an Opus 180 model, quite comparable to the state-of-the-art organ of the time. It had a nice set of pipes.”
VanDerStad said that he discovered that Good Shepherd paid $1,725 for the organ in 1916 and it was installed in the church in April of that year.
“If you do a CPI index, it will show that the organ would now cost $300,000,” VanDerStad said.
VanDerStad believed that the organ had a lot of promise. He knew it would take a lot of work – much of it tedious and precise. He also knew that he needed help.
“Restoring is bringing everything back to its originality,” VanDerStad said. “This was more of a rebuilding. Most of the mechanisms had to be refurbished or replaced. The pipes had to be sanded and re-varnished. All of the cracks had to be sealed and the metal pipes had to be washed and cleaned. We also had to remove all the plaster that fell into the organ. It was an extensive job. Once we started opening up the organ, I saw how much the water damaged things.”
Added VanDerStad, “What I originally thought would take a week or so to fix ended up taking two years.”
VanDerStad said that he had two part-time employees who helped with the repairs, but most of the help came from parishioners, who volunteered their time.
“It became a community project,” Solano said. “Wherever volunteers could do the work, they did it. We worked around Jan’s schedule. We were so grateful to Jan that he was going to be able to repair the organ, so we all chipped in where we could.”
“We were able to accommodate each other,” VanDerStad said. “Church members participated and were able to lend assistance. Everyone was willing to pitch in. It really turned out to be quite an effort.”
Play it again
After two years of hard work and some elbow grease, the Good Shepherd organ has been repaired and is ready to be unveiled to the community. It will be the centerpiece of a celebration this afternoon (Sunday, Nov. 23) at 4 p.m., with members of the Good Shepherd community performing music.
“Just to get a beautiful piece like our organ back is a reason to celebrate,” Solano said. “We’re inviting all the members of the community to come, enjoy the organ, play music. We have a drum circle that will also perform. There will be dancers from Ecuador and Peru. It’s going to be a great time.”
In the middle of the celebration will be VanDerStad, who will be one of the people playing the organ he helped to rebuild. Regular church organist David Smyth and VanDerStad’s associate Nick Timo, who is an organist at a temple in Summit, will also play the organ in its splendor.
“I think the organ does all it’s required to now,” VanDerStad said. “It is a complete liturgical instrument, but it is also a capable concert instrument now as well.”
So how does VanDerStad feel about his work of art?
“I really am happy,” VanDerStad said. “I can’t express the feeling in words.”
VanDerStad will continue to maintain the organ, along with the dozen or so others in the area that he is contracted to watch.
“We were very lucky to find him,” Solano said. “In fact, it was more than luck. This was providence. There is no way we could have afforded to have it repaired. We probably would have had to continue to use it the way it was. But now, it’s wonderful again.”
And ready to be shown to the Weehawken and Good Shepherd community once again.