Note: Not extant. Not playable. (in this location)
2015-05-04 - This entry describes the installation of a new pipe organ, identified through e-mail from Mike Brady: <br>[The organ] was installed in the 1950s after initial construction of the church. I grew up in that parish (1950s-1960s) and was in a couple of choirs where we were accompanied by various organists. <br>The original organ, from memory, had a Schoenstein builders plate. It had a fixed-location 3-manual console with stop tabs on side panels, not knobs, facing the organ with mirrors resembling the outside mirrors on a truck for keeping track of what was happening up front. From visual memory only, there was a decent supply of stops, typical of church organs of the time, with at least 3 sections plus pedal. A large box-section wood-enclosed channel (step height; the walkway connecting the two parts of the loft crossed it) connected the console and the box on which the exposed pipes were mounted. The organ had an exposed section on a high (to a kid - probably 6-10') box in the center of the choir loft, with choir benches up each side theater fashion rising about 1/2 way up the box. The rose window in the center of that wall of the church was partly blocked by the pipes; a picture I have seen (can't find it any more) of the Wicks shows that it is arranged so as to not obstruct that window). Additional pipes were in a chamber on the east side of the loft. Not sure whether a similar chamber on the west side had pipes in it. <br>Based on an email conversation with Jack Bethards some years ago, Schoenstein may not have built the organ from scratch - incomplete information suggested that they may have built the console and case but otherwise used pipes from other organs being dismantled at the time. He had no information regarding its disposition when replaced with the Wicks. <br>At any rate, when operated by a good organist, it was a nice-sounding instrument (again, from distant memory). Ordinary Sundays were, of course, ordinary. <br>The parish web site (http://epiphanysf.com/) has a brief history page (http://epiphanysf.com/history.htm) that indicates the current church building was completed in 1950. The organ would most likely have been installed before 1955. There is no mention of the organ. Given the age of the original instrument and uncertain provenance of many of its parts, it's likely that by the 1980s it was in poor condition; it was most likely scrapped when the new organ was installed. -Database Manager
2015-05-06 - Updated through online information from Michael Brady. -Database Manager
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