The organ at St. Mark's Evangelical Lutheran Church, 201 W. Jefferson St., fell silent this week.

Starting Monday, the Opus 8591 Moller pipe organ's 2,685 pipes — ranging in size from 17 feet long to those the size of a pencil — were being disassembled and packed into boxes for a six-month rebuilding project.

The church had a “Farewell to the Pipes” open house Tuesday to give people a chance to view the inside of the church's longtime organ as an eight-member crew from Patrick Murphy & Associates, an organ building and renovation firm, dismantled the instrument.

The pipes and major parts of the organ will be taken to Murphy's Stowe shop 45 minutes west of Philadelphia where they will be refurbished, returned and reinstalled this fall.

Karen Krenitsky, the head organist at St. Mark's, said it was time.

“The church was built in 1951,” said Krenitsky, who added the organ was installed and dedicated in 1954.

“A lot of organs in Butler were built by the Moller Company, and we were fortunate to have one of the larger ones,” said Krenitsky.

“The leather components of the organ are wearing out, the little leather pouches that force air into the pipes,” Krenitsky said. “They start to get hard and split. Some pipes are not placed advantageously.”

The organ was subject to ciphers, random notes sounded by the organ.

“We're also getting dead notes, notes that won't play,” said Krenitsky. “You press the piston and nothing would happen.”

“Dead keys we kind of worked around. Ciphers didn't happen that much,” she said.

A Murphy employee, Megan Farrell, said, “The metal pipes will be cleaned, washed and straightened if needed. We'll add new tuning collars if needed. Our in-house voicer will go through and make sure each pipe is speaking at its potential.”

The company will also replace leather parts.

Project manager Matthew Farrell said the restoration will include updating the two consoles that control the organ.

During the six months the organ will be gone, assistant organist Rebecca Veith said the church will make do with a piano and a keyboard.

“Of course, it's not the same as a pipe organ,” said Veith. “It doesn't have the same touch, and the action is different on a piano.”

“With an organ, you aren't hitting the keys hard when you want to change volume, you change stops. It is a more difficult instrument to master,” said Veith.

Although Krenitsky said the restoration will cost $400,000, it won't cost the present-day congregation of 1,800 anything.

“There was a fund set aside in the 1950s by the Troutman family,” said Krenitsky. “We're talking about setting up a fund to maintain the organ.”

She said St. Mark's cashed out the fund and used the principal and accrued interest to finance the organ's restoration.

Once the organ has been reinstalled, Krenitsky said, “We are hoping to set up a recital by local organists who have played the organ at one time or another.”

She said she is looking forward to playing on the restored organ.

“There's nothing like it to be able to have a pipe organ to create all the sounds of a full orchestra,” said St. Mark's pastor, the Rev. Al Towberman.

“It will be back for Christmas but it won't be here for Holy Week and Easter,” Towberman said.