Antique collector's passion for pump organs has led him to buy a Marshfield church. Again.

MARSHFIELD - This time, Michael Kennelly vows, he won't be moving again. This church, he says, will be his forever home.

The 66-year-old Navy veteran said this before. The last time was about three years ago, when he moved from a ranch home in Milwaukee into the Kingdom Hall once used by the Marshfield-area Jehovah's Witnesses. Kennelly bought the large, open building so he could live there with his collection of antique pump organs. He owned about 40 at the time, and most of them were stored by friends.

A couple years after he bought the Kingdom Hall, he told the Marshfield News-Herald that the former Kingdom Hall was "the best home I ever had. I couldn't be happier here." And it was true.

But after the story ran in March 2022, he was tempted with offers from people — mostly older, mostly downsizing — to take their pump organs. Kennelly loves pump organs so much that he had a hard time saying no, and his collection jumped to about 50. (He doesn't really count them; and some he takes to use for parts.) That's when he started looking for a bigger place and found the church building he lives in now on East Ninth Street a few blocks from downtown Marshfield.

This church was used by a Marshfield-area Baptist congregation. Its footprint isn't larger than the old single-story Kingdom Hall. But it has three stories, giving Kennelly about twice the space for his collection of pump organs and many, many other antiques, including furniture, portrait photographs, glass items and grandfather clocks.

"I thought I was going to live there (in the Kingdom Hall) forever," Kennelly said. "But this will my last stop, here."

Will it really?

"Yes, yes," Kennelly said. "The move here was quite difficult. To go through this, to move again, would be impossible. I couldn't do it again."

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Living in a 100-year-old church fits Kennelly's aesthetic lifestyle

The former Baptist church suits Kennelly's aesthetic lifestyle even more than the modern Kingdom Hall did. The red-brick building, complete with bell tower, will be 100 years old next year, Kennelly said; its year of construction roughly matches when pump organs were popular.

The church has a Gothic look. Kennelly leaned into that vibe by painting trim portions of the building, such as the downspouts, black. The basement level is where the church members had their gatherings, and it has a fine kitchen. Kennelly's living quarters are down there.

The main-floor sanctuary is where Kennelly keeps his pipe organs. They are lined up in dramatic rows like parishioners sitting in pews. A towering pipe organ, distinct from the smaller pump organs, is a recent addition that Kennelly purchased from an estate sale in Wausau. It sits in a place of honor at the head of the church, on the altar.

The interesting thing about Kennelly's passion for pump organs is that even though they are in working order, he doesn't play them. He just loves the way they look. Handmade from hardwood by craftsman, the instruments feature ornate carvings, full of curlicues and other artistic elements.

Kennelly finds the fine woodworking so irresistible that it just makes sense for him to forge the rest of his life around that passion.

More room for pump organs now, but hard choices are coming

In addition to the organs themselves, Kennelly finds deep satisfaction in arranging them and the rest of his antiques. Like a good curator of an art exhibition, he uses his own sense of interior design and aesthetic values to make the display into a work of art itself.

It's not for everybody, he said. A visitor to the Kingdom Hall once told him that it was so crowded it was hard to breathe. But Kennelly likes the feeling of being surrounded by his things, all of which he chose because he feels their beauty.

Kennelly once thought he might used the Kingdom Hall as a museum, but he's given up on that idea with the church. He thinks, instead, the church could be used as a wedding venue, and he's in the process of reaching out to wedding planners to offer the building to couples who might revel in being surrounded by a late 1800s vibe.

Once Kennelly buys something he loves, he never sells it, which is why he moved from the Kingdom Hall into the church. The larger building gives him more space to revel in his hobby.

"I've got room to fit in some more (pump organs)," he said.

The move is only a temporary fix, and soon Kennelly will need to make some hard choices. He winces at the thought of having to say no to getting another beautiful organ.

He's already begun collecting new things, old grandfather clocks and pieces made from red glass. It's easier to find places to display those.

He knows that living in a church and orienting his life around his collection of pump organs is unusual. But it makes him happy, he said.

"I like to live different than most people," he said.

Contact Micheal Kennelly

Although Kennelly's collection of pump organs and other antiques is not open to the public, he often welcomes visitors on a one-on-one basis. And even though his space is limited, he's open to looking at people's pipe organs to add to the collection. To learn more, people may call him at 414-702-6606.

Contact Keith Uhlig at 715-845-0651 or kuhlig@gannett.com. Follow him at @UhligK on X, formerly Twitter, and Instagram or on Facebook.

This article originally appeared on Marshfield News-Herald: Passion for antique pump organs led collector to buy Marshfield church