Unknown - Organ facade in rear gallery and nave (Photograph from an archival source: Church website, submitted by Paul R. Marchesano/Paul R. Marchesano)
2020-01-07 - This entry describes an original installation of a new pipe organ. <br>Identified by James R. Stettner, listing this web site as a source of information: https://stmarypassaic.org/.<br>The organ is located in the rear gallery and housed in a free-standing case with a large pipe fence facade of gold-painted pipes. -Database Manager
2022-01-10 - The dedication of the organ was announced in the *Passaic Daily News*, Saturday, April 12, 1930: "The dedication of the new pipe organ, which has just been installed in the Church of the Assumption of the Blessed Virgin Mary, Market and Monroe Streets, will take place in the church at 3:30 o'clock tomorrow afternoon. The rector, the Rev. John D. Salamon, and his assistant, the Rev. Andrew V. Stefan, will be in charge of the dedication. . . . "The organ was constructed by George Kilgen and Son, Incorporated, pipe organ builders of St. Louis, Missouri, and contains two manuals or keyboards. It has been installed in the church building behind a most beautiful case. "There are embodied in the instrument many new tonal qualities developed by the bullets [*sic*; probably “builders” was meant] and not heretofore heard in pipe organs. It was selected by Father Salamon and before being shipped to Passaic was completely assembled in the Kilgen plant, tested and then dissembled [*sic*] again for shipping.**" The dedication program followed. The information about the organ was repeated with only minor changes in wording in a report on the dedication service in the same newspaper, Monday, April 14, 1930. The “Parish History” webpage of the church is silent about the installation of the organ and its present status and reports only that “from 1972 to the present, other improvements were made to parish property and buildings. . . . In the church, extensive repairs were made to the organ, a new sound system was installed, and a reconciliation room and restroom were built.” The statement “Reverend John E. Pollyakovics came in 1896. The church established a parochial school. Fr. Pollyakovics and the organist taught the small classes which assembled in the basement of the church” implies the existence of an earlier organ in the church; whether it was a pipe organ and, if it was, who built it await further investigation. Sources: "Monsignor Krasla Delivers Address at Dedication of New Pipe Organ," *Passaic Daily News,* April 14, 1930, 7, Newspapers.com, accessed January 8, 2022, https://www.newspapers.com/image/556921001. "Parish History," St. Mary's Assumption R.C. Church, Passaic, New Jersey, accessed January 8, 2022, https://stmarypassaic.org/parish-history. "St. Marie's Church to Dedicate New Pipe Organ at Impressive Services," *Passaic Daily News*, April 12, 1930, 6, Newspapers.com, accessed January 8, 2022, https://www.newspapers.com/image/556920899. -charles Eberline
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