Note: Not extant. Not playable. (in this location)
2010-07-09 - Identified through online information from James R. Stettner. -- According to an online version of Baylor Magazine (Summer 2010 Volume 8, Number 4), "...Baylor music professors and alumni decided that such a grand structure deserved an appropriate instrument. Dedicated volunteers worked to raise money to purchase a new organ, despite the challenges posed by the Depression. A large 100-stop pipe organ was installed in Waco Hall and dedicated on May 30, 1937. It was named in memory of the late Baylor President Samuel Palmer Brooks, AB 1893, who had dreamed of one day bringing a large pipe organ to Waco Hall." The organ was installed in chambers under the stage, and Waco Hall had been built over a spring, so a large sump pump shared the organ space. The article continues, "'It was a horrible place for an organ. Since Waco Hall was built on a flowing spring, the organ shared space with a giant sump to collect water. That moisture served as a prime cause of the organ's continuing deterioration,' says Dr. William V. May, BM '69, dean of the Baylor School of Music. 'In the 1960s I remember seeing Professor Markham emerging from the darkness under the stage, carrying tools and wearing a miner's light affixed to his forehead, after seeking to keep that organ in working condition.' Following many years of deterioration the Brooks organ fell silent and was eventually removed." -Database Manager
2010-08-07 - Updated through online information from T. Bradford Willis, DDS. -- According to an article in the Waco-Tribune Herald, May 30, 1937, Professor Robert Markham, head of the organ dept. of the Baylor School of Music, was responsible in designing the specification of the Brooks Memorial Organ. The organ contained a total of 78 ranks, consisting of 61 to 85 pipes to the set, or a grand total of 5185 pipes, in addition to a harp and two sets of chimes. Jasmine Porter was a consultant to Professor Markham in designing the organ's specification. Peter Nielsen of Kansas City was voicing engineer for the organ. Professor Markham had the honor of playing the first piece on the new instrument, "Faith of Our Fathers" which was the favorite hymn of the late Baylor President, Dr. S. P. Brooks. -Database Manager
2010-11-30 - Updated through online information from Alan Swartz. -- From personal experience I can clarify the coexistence of the organ with the purported natural spring beneath Waco Hall. The organ was located immediately beneath the stage, forced to project its sound through the orchestra pit. At some point, the pit had been enlarged with the construction of a wooden platform beneath the stage. As a player in the opera orchestra, it was possible to look over my shoulder and examine the pipes and chests while counting rests in the score. The spring manifested itself as an open well in the concrete floor of the second basement--one floor below the chests and pipes. The actual "well room" contained electrical equipment, but I do not remember any organ components on that second level. There was a sump pump designed to control flooding if the well overflowed. Rumor had it that flooding had occurred, with water entering the orchestra pit, which would have inundated the entire instrument. The organ was in poor playing condition in the early 1980s, thought it was occasionally used for university functions. It was an unnerving experience to play it at night in the dark auditorium, with the console fluorescent lights the only illumination in the room and the subterranean chamber as black as pitch. While I was a student, plans were made to install a new organ in chambers either side of the proscenium, and indeed I remember hearing about the proposed specification, and the chambers were built. I do not believe the new instrument ever came to fruition. -Database Manager
2015-07-25 - Updated through online information from T. Bradford Willis, DDS. -Database Manager
2017-11-22 - "From 1935 to 1937, he [Robert Markham] directed and personally assisted the building of a large four-manual pipe organ in Waco Hall, which Baylor alumni had undertaken to provide in memory of President S. P. Brooks, who had died in 1931. The organ was completed and dedicated in May, 1937, with a recital played by the renowned French organist, Marcel Dupré. Later recitalists included Frank Asper of [the Mormon Tabernacle in Salt Lake City] Utah, and Dr. William H. Barnes, the noted American authority on organ building and design who, after playing the organ, enthusiastically donated his recital fee to the project. In recognition of this work Markham was awarded an honorary doctorate by the then prestigious Boguslawski School of Music in Chicago." (from Dedication Program of Ruffatti organ in Roxy Grove Hall) -Database Manager
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