M. P. Moller

Mathias Peter Møller, commonly known as M.P. Möller or Moeller (29 September 1854, Østermarie, Denmark – 13 April 1937, Hagerstown, Maryland, US), was a prolific pipe-organ builder and businessman. A native of the Danish island of Bornholm, he emigrated to the United States in 1872 and founded the M.P. Moller Pipe Organ Company in Greencastle, Pennsylvania, in 1875. The city of Hagerstown, Maryland, took notice of Möller's early successes and induced him to move his business there in 1881 to help make it a viable business center in Western Maryland. The company remained in business until 1992, with hundreds of employees at its peak and a lifetime production of over 12,000 instruments.

Möller's earliest instruments were built by industry supply houses under contract, using tracker action to link the organ console to the pipe chests by mechanical means. By 1902 tubular-pneumatic action was used, until by 1919 the company developed its own version of electro-pneumatic action, referred to as pitman action. Möller thought that anybody who wanted a pipe organ should be able to get one. So, the company built many "Portable" (3 ranks of pipes) and "Artiste" instruments (3 to 9 ranks), smaller mass-produced organs which incorporated standard specifications with fewer sets of pipes. Möller organs can be found in churches, synagogues, concert halls, educational institutions, funeral homes, hospital chapels, movie theaters, municipal auditoriums, restaurants, private residences, and social service organizations.

The first major contract that Möller obtained with the United States service academies was for the instrument in the Cadet Chapel of the United States Military Academy at West Point, New York. This was Möller Opus 1200, dedicated in 1911. The project bid package included an approved organ design of three manuals with pedalboard. The winning bidder was allowed to suggest and implement changes to this design following the contract award. As a result, Möller, as the builder of the organ, got to demonstrate his best practices in the Cadet Chapel organ. Möller remained the primary supplier of additions until after World War II. Today this mostly-Möller organ is the world's largest all-pipe organ in a religious structure, although the First Congregational Church of Los Angeles, California makes a similar claim with its two pipe organs. Möller rebuilt and expanded the Naval Academy Chapel Organ in 1940, and built the organ for the Air Force Academy Chapel in 1963.

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