St. Christopher's 1891 Vintage Organ |
1891 Organ |
The church organ pictured on this page is unusual in that it began life at St. John's (Olympia) as the church organ there in 1891, built and installed by Pilcher and Sons Organ Company of Louisville, Kentucky. It was used for some Gilbert and Sullivan productions as well as for church services. In the 1950's, St. John's moved to larger quarters and sold their old building to First Baptist Church. St. John's chose not to move their organ to the new building and since the Baptists did not want it either it went into storage. It was eventually purchased from the Baptists, changed hands several times, and finally became the property of Jane Edge. It again ended up being put into storage. Eventually an agreement was reached to install the organ at St. Christopher's and that work began in earnest in late 2000 after some initial fundraising. The pipes were completely stripped of old paint and repainted including some intricate stenciling as they had been when originally at St. John's (much of stenciling was done by Jeff Sprengel, our organist). Woodwork required was done by Harlan Sachs of St. Christopher's. The original motor and blower were replaced by modern equipment. The organ reassembly was supervised by Ms. Dana Hull of Ann Arbor, Michigan who is an organ builder/restorer. The restored and reinstalled 1891 historic organ was dedicated in a concert on May 20, 2001 performed in part by Jane Edge. That was followed by a concert for the Olympia community on October 21, 2001 led by our organist, Jeff Sprengel, accompanied by two singers and two instrumentalists from the St. Christopher's congregation. We hope to continue to use the organ to benefit the church as well as enrich the community around us. After installation of the organ, our old organ was donated to another Episcopal congregation to replace their small electronic organ who in turn donated that instrument to a small congregation which had no organ at all. The final phase was the installation of a new balcony railing (the organ was installed in the balcony after a small room was removed) that artistically matches the organ itself. The organ looks and sounds wonderful. |
