Nathan Bienz on December 12th, 2025:
When the chapel/auditorium in Schick Hall was converted to a designated chapel space in 1943, the renovations included a new 3-manual Wangerin pipe organ. Both chapel and organ were dedicated on September 12, 1943. In 1953, the campus was sold to Indiana Technical College (renamed "Indiana Institute of Technology" in 1963 and commonly called "Indiana Tech"). Both Concordia College and Indiana Tech shared the campus until June 30, 1956, at which point Indiana Tech gained full possession. Indiana Tech demolished Schick Hall in 1980 but sold off most of the furnishings and many salvageable architectural elements prior to the demolition. A local man named Dale Hockensmith purchased the organ for $500. "According to Hockensmith, the organ console was behind the altar area, and the pipes and other parts of the organ were in a separate room that was also behind the altar. What he did not realize was that there was a second room, of the same size, that was also filled with more pipes and more mechanical parts. . . . Hockensmith went home with a Wangerin organ, several windchests and over 1,500 pipes" (Arthur). In 2001, he expressed an interest in selling the organ—intact if possible. Sources: Patricia Sagester Arthur, Making Joyful Noises: A History of the Pipe Organs of Fort Wayne and Allen County, Indiana (Nappanee, IN: Evangel Press, 2001), 104. Herbert George Bredemeier, Concordia College, Fort Wayne, Indiana: 1839–1957 (Fort Wayne Public Library, 1978), 264, 269. Linda Lipp, "A Tale of Two Buildings," Greater Fort Wayne Business Weekly, September 10, 2010; rev. February 7, 2013. https://www.fwbusiness.com/news/latest/businessweekly/article_7b93459d-e285-5ca0-9494-0b13a1b6aa96.html