The restoration work is being done by the Schantz Organ Company in Ohio. Expert craftsmen employ a wide range of skills ranging from metal casting, metalworking, and woodworking. Old world craftsmanship is combined with computers and computer driven cutting tools.

Scaffolds covered the Rear Gallery of the Cathedral when the Schantz Organ Company began the exciting work of disassembling the Gallery Organ and pipes. Removal, which began on Monday January 30, 2006, is an involved process, taking several weeks.

Schantz is dismantling the entire Gallery Organ and carefully packing the pipes and console in wooden crates for transport to their Orrville, Ohio, factory.

They will clean, repair, test and replace pipes, build new wind chests, and clean the organ chambers (the "rooms" which house the pipes). Schantz will create a new Organ Console (the "command center") with stop knobs, four sets of keyboards and the pedal board for the Gallery, while restoring the current Gallery Organ Console for placement in the upper Sanctuary (where it will be moveable for concerts and special services)

After final testing in the factory, Schantz will dismantle, transport and re-install the Gallery Organ in the Cathedral. Once the Gallery Organ is back, Schantz' tonal finishers will meticulously make sure that each and every pipe is speaking well and voiced properly for the Cathedral space. This will involve a significant amount of on-site time.

Once the Gallery Organ is complete, we start with the Sanctuary Organ. At that time, scaffolding will rise behind the Main Altar.

This is a big project. It will take three years to finish both organs.

Schantz Organ Company was founded in 1873 and is the oldest and largest American organ builder still under management of the founding family. The firm has built or re-built organs ranging in size from small organs of a few ranks of pipes to complex designs for some of the largest halls, churches and cathedrals in the world.