Better Pipe Organ Database

J.G. Pfeffer & Son (1897)

St. Thomas the Apostle Roman Catholic Church
14816 Route B
St. Thomas, MO

Images

2020-03-18 - Church front exterior (Photograph by Church Facebook, submitted by Jeff Scofield/Jeff Scofield)

2020-04-12 - Church exterior (Photograph by Church Facebook, submitted by Jeff Scofield/Jeff Scofield)

2021-04-04 - Church interior to front (Photograph by Church Facebook, submitted by Jeff Scofield/Jeff Scofield)

2016 - Console (Photograph by Quimby Pipe Organs website, submitted by Jeff Scofield/Jeff Scofield)

2017-04-24 - Keydesk, restored (Photograph by Fr. Jeremy Secrist/Database Manager)

2017-07-18 - Facade (Photograph by Fr. Jeremy Secrist/Database Manager)

2015-09-01 - Nave, Balcony, and Organ Case (Photograph by Fr. Jeremy A. Secrist/Database Manager)

2015-09-01 - Pipework and Writing on Organ Case ((Steamboat Frederick transported organ from St. Louis). Photograph by Fr. Jeremy A. Secrist/Database Manager)

2015-09-01 - Trackers (Photograph by Fr. Jeremy A. Secrist/Database Manager)

2015-09-01 - Keydesk (Photograph by Fr. Jeremy A. Secrist/Database Manager)

Consoles

Main

Organ type: Traditional With a Keyboard Cover That Can Be Lifted To Form a Music Rack
Console position: Keydesk Attached
1 manuals
9 stops
9 registers
2 divisions
Key action Type: Mechanical (Details Unknown)
Stop action Type: Mechanical
Stop layout Type: Drawknobs in Horizontal Rows on Terraced/Stepped Jambs
Manual compass: 58 notes
Pedal compass: 25 notes
Pedal Type: Flat Straight
Expression Type: No Enclosed Divisions
Combination action: Fixed Mechanical

Notes

2004-10-30 - All original Pfeffer pipe work is extant, even as ~30 Pfeffer pipes are currently intermixed with three ranks of pipes located on electric offset chests (from 1983) located behind the Pfeffer case and wired to a 1950's-era 2 manual Wicks console located downstairs. -Database Manager

2015-09-01 - Updated through online information from Fr. Jeremy Secrist. -Database Manager

2016-08-23 - Updated through online information from Fr. Jeremy Secrist. <br>The Pfeffer instrument at St. Thomas the Apostle was restored according to OHS guidelines by Quimby Pipe Organs of Warrensburg, MO, with restoration completed in July 2016. -Database Manager

2018-12-21 - Updated by James R. Stettner, listing this web site as a source of information: https://pipeorgandatabase.org/OrganDetails.php?OrganID=1360. <br> <br> -Database Manager

2021-04-17 - From the Quimby website: Quimby Pipe Organs has been engaged by St. Thomas the Apostle Catholic Church in St. Thomas, Missouri, to restore the Church’s 1897 one-manual and pedal Pfeffer pipe organ. The pipe organ, which has been in the Church since 1897, was shipped down the Osage River on the Steamer Frederick, according to a notation on the inside of the casework. The instrument served the church for approximately eighty years, until it was superseded by a three-rank electro-pneumatic unit organ, which was unceremoniously installed on the Subbass windchest at the rear of the Pfeffer, and on the tuner’s walkboard. Interestingly, all of the original Pfeffer pipework survives, although some pipework had been borrowed for use in the electro-pneumatic organ. Mechanically, the instrument is also nearly intact, with the only missing components being the wind trunk to the Pedal chest and miscellany associated with the mounting of the pump handle. Restoration work will be done according to the Organ Historical Society Conservation Guidelines and will include careful repair, cleaning, and regulation of all pipework (which is all original, and is still cone-tuned), replacement of an early twentieth century blower and motor, restoration of the hand-pumping mechanism, releathering of the double-rise reservoir and feeder bellows, replacement of leather nuts and felts, re-graphiting of wood sliders and repairs to table, replacement of missing wood wind trunk to the Pedal windchest, cleaning of all interior components and casework, and complete regulation of the action. -Jeff Scofield

Stoplist

Stoplist provided by Fr. Jeremy A. Secrist Source: Source not recorded Date not recorded

St. Thomas, Missouri
St. Thomas the Apostle Catholic Church

J. G. Pfeffer   1897
____________________________________________________
   
Unenclosed manual (58 notes)
8' Open Diapason  - 58 pipes
8' Stopped Diapason - 58 pipes
8' Gamba (1-12 from Stopped Diapason) - 49 pipes
8' Dulciana  - 58 pipes
4' Rohrflute  - 58 pipes
4' Octave  - 58 pipes
2 2/3' Twelfth - 58 pipes
2' Fifteenth - 58 pipes

Pedal (25 notes)
16' Subbass - 25 pipes
Pedal coupler
Tremulant
Bellows signal

The original double-rise feeder bellows are extant, 
although the instrument had an electric blower 
installed somewhere around 1948 (following the 
tornado that destroyed the original bell tower).  
Pending restoration in the very near future, the 
instrument is currently not regularly used.  

[Received from Fr. Jeremy A. Secrist August 31, 2015]

Websites

Pfeffer Pipe Organ - Pictures, description, history (Check Internet Archive, archive.is)