Roseville Lutheran Church is getting a major upgrade.
The church is getting a newly restored pipe organ that it says will be one of the largest in the northeast metro. The project will combine pipes from its current Möller organ and one of the last Holtkamp organs designed by the company’s long-time president, Walter Holtkamp, Sr.
The church raised $850,000 from private donors for the project, an amount that exceeded goals and allows for the establishment of a dedicated maintenance fund.
It was given a helping hand by St. Luke’s Episcopal Church in Birmingham, Ala., which is getting an upgrade of its own and was willing to part with its Holtkamp for free, as long as the Roseville congregation could pick up the organ. Though, that’s no small feat.
The Holtkamp was disassembled in June by RLC volunteers and employees from JF Nordlie Organ Builders in Sioux Falls, S.D., which will be constructing the organ using pieces of the Möller and Holtkamp, as well as some new pipes. The crew spent a week in Birmingham removing 3,000 pipes by hand.