Note: Not extant. Not playable. (in this location)
2018-11-05 - This entry describes an original installation of a new pipe organ. <br>Identified by Scot Huntington, who has heard or played the organ. . Additionally, Scot Huntington listed this individual as a source of information: David Lennington.<br>Installed by Don Bohall in the first-floor rehearsal hall of the Dorothy Dickinson Darte Center for the Performing Arts. Shipped Sept. 1, 1971, cost $7,080.00; "institutional finish" blond oak. Wilkes-Barre was ravaged by the disastrous flooding of the Susquehanna River caused by Hurricane Agnes in June, 1972. While the organ is recorded in the Schlicker opus list as "rebuilt", the insurance company paid for a new instrument ($7,732), and given the organ's location near the river, it was surely destroyed by the flood waters. -Database Manager
2018-12-07 - Updated by Scot Huntington <br> <br> -Database Manager
2023-01-13 - Following the Agnes flood in 1972, the remains of the organ were returned to the Schlicker factory. The "rebuilt" organ was installed and voiced by Donald Bohall, head of the Schlicker service department and a master voicer. Although the present instrument gives every appearance of being a new organ, and Manuel Rosales who was working in the factory at the time remembers the organ being essentially destroyed, the console contains the original 1971 nameplate. It also bears a memory plaque, in memory of one of the two heros who died during the flood while trying to stop the dike breech. It reads as follows: In Memorium Master Sergeant Robert E. Whitman, HHC. 1st Battalion. 103D Armor. 5 July 1926-14 July 1972. Died on active duty while serving with his unit assisting in the tropical storm Agnes emergency Wilkes-Barre, Pennnsylvania. Erected by his comrades in the Pennsylvania Army and Air National Guard. Attempts to ascertain the circumstances surrounding this memorial plaque were fruitless- there were no records in the university files, and I was unable to find any relatives by this name in the local directory. The organ was used on the stage of the first floor auditorium in the Performing Arts Center, and was kept in a room used for instrument storage immediately behind the stage. A duplicate instrument built in 1976 was in a practice room on the 3rd floor and was sold to David Lennington as part of the same sale of the Whitman memorial organ to Scot Huntington in 2019. The organ chassis was fitted with casters and the console is on a moveable platform, but unfortunately the cable is hard wired and was not fitted with a quick-disconnect plug. The organ is now installed in Huntington's living room in his Westerly, Rhode Island residence. -Scot Huntington
Source: Taken from console. Jan. 12, 2023
Wilkes-Barre, Pennsylvania Wilkes College Schlicker Organ Co. (1971-1973) Compasses: 61/32 Two ranks: 4' Principal, 8' Rohrgedeckt, 2 Townhouse pedal towers 16' notes 1-12 GREAT 8' Principal 8' Rohrgedeckt 4' Octave 2' Rohrgedeckt POSITIV 8' Rohrgedeckt 4' Rohrgedeckt 2' Principal 1 1/3' Larigot PEDAL 16' Gedeckt Bass 8' Rohrgedeckt 4' Principal
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