Palace of pipe organs also place for Peace

By Rachel Pritchett, synod communcator
PORT LUDLOW, WASH. — Tucked alongside the cattle pastures and towering evergreens of Western Washington's Beaver Valley is a pipe-organ palace like no other.
Retired veterinarian Dr. Robert Schladetzky climbs onto the bench of a massive 1913 Kimball organ with more than 2,000 pipes in a huge chamber behind. Rich, luscious strains of "Almighty Fortress" rumble through Schladetzky's Beaver Springs Lodge, which he built years ago to house his incredible collection of the king of instruments.
Red and black Northwest Native American art pieces — masks, totems and traditional spirits painted on rustic wooden beams — are the only audience now as the familiar strains roll through the lodge.
But each Sunday morning, there is another group in front of this magnificent organ. It is Peace Lutheran Fellowship, a new ELCA worshiping community born from a nearby congregation, Lutheran Church of the Redeemer, that split over the churchwide decision on sexuality. The church left the ELCA, leaving the rest who wished to remain with the ELCA with no home.
Until Schladetzky agreed to let them use his eclectic palace of organs, that is.
With more than 30 members, the Peace community is grateful it has a place now to continue its mission of supporting ELCA mission here and abroad. At first relying on visiting pastors, the fledgling worshiping community is calling a pastor through the Southwestern Washington Synod. It is focused on growing in this most unchurched corner of the country. Already, several new families attend.
"This is just one more example of how we must be more creative in our focus on new mission starts in the synod," said Bishop Robert D. Hofstad.
Peace worshipers delight in their eclectic surroundings, and readily admit they're probably the only ELCA group that worships next to a full-service bar, and where a bright commercial kitchen opens up just feet from the altar.
And what other sanctuary has a shining gold-and-red 1928 Barton "circus-wagon" theater organ, complete with snare drum, cow bell, boat whistle, celeste and bird tweets?
Or how about a player piano with 200 rolls, a wall of autographed photos of movie greats like the sultry Mae West?
Dr. Schlade, as the locals call him, is full of interesting historical tidbits. The Kimball's original console is lost somewhere in history. The enormous oak 1935 console that sits here now came from First Presbyterian Church of Indiana, Penn., where actor Jimmy Stewart worshiped.
"He would have seen this," Schlade said.
He said his love for fine pipe organs began as a boy in Seattle. He grew up in the Pentecostal church where music ruled. He recalls pulling a red velvet curtain behind his church organ one day, and feeling his jaw drop when he discovered those beautiful sounds came from a complex myriad of pipes and moving pieces.
"I'm absolutely convinced that's where I got hit by the virus," admitted Schlade, now 67.
Years running a couple of big-animal vet practices went by. But he found enough time to become part of a network of people like himself poised to snatch pipe organs from old churches and theaters before the wrecking ball hit. The Kimball once stood in a big church in Walla Walla, Wash. The theater organ came from a long-gone silent movie theater Royal Oak, Mich.
Who knows how long Peace Lutheran Fellowship will call this its home. Schlade's has the place for sale for several years. He's had a lifetime of Northwest rain and yearns to grow grapes in the dry Palouse of Eastern Washington.
No buyers yet, though.
"Somebody that buys this place has to be into pipe organs. Let's face it," he said, acknowledging sadly that his pipe organs most likely will stay here in this special place.