Better Pipe Organ Database


C. Franklin Legge Organ Co. (1930)

Riverdale Presbyterian Church: Sanctuary
662 Pape Avenue
Toronto, ON, CA

Note: Not extant. Not playable. (in this location)


Images


1930 - Console (Photograph from an archival source: Builder's catalogue, submitted by Gordon Slater/Gordon Slater)

1970 - 73–note manuals A-A. This AGO pedalboard is not original. Gordon Slater, Organist & Choirmaster 1969–1972 (Photograph by James B. Slater, submitted by Gordon Slater/Gordon Slater)

Consoles

Sanctuary


Notes

2020-10-25 - The organ occupied only half of the large chamber. The 1200-seat Sanctuary with its 3-second reverberation made the economical organ sound acceptable. I was Organist and Choir Director from 1969 to 1972. The Sanctuary was sold off ca. 1980 and made into condominiums. I don't know what became of the organ. -Gordon Slater

2020-10-25 - The two unexpressive diapasons were large of scale and made of thick, unspotted pipe metal, complete with linen casting marks. The facade was dummy (no languid), zinc, gold-coloured, diapason-type pipes. The Tremulant was connected to the enclosed, 6-rank chest but it shook the 3 unenclosed ranks as well because there was only one reservoir for the whole instrument. Percussion: harp (unexpressive), chimes (expressive). The chime tubes were all of the same diameter, so they clearly were not Deagan Class A. The original, A-F 33-note pedalboard was standing, disused, in the chamber during my tenure. The half of the chamber not occupied by the organ was used as storage for Christmas decorations. Single-pole electromagnets were used throughout, hence the polarity reverser on the reservoir. These magnets were of low DC resistance, so the bronze-on-bronze key contacts and relay contacts had many dead notes (arc-suppressing diodes had not been invented when the organ was built). The blower was next to the coal bin. Fortunately, by the time I worked at the church (1969-72), the heating had been converted to natural gas. I worked for the builder's son, C. F. David Legge (Legge Organ Co. Ltd.) 1970-77. David told me: 1) His father used A-A 73-note manuals and the A-F pedalboard because that's what a piano had. 2) David replaced the A-F pedalboard with an AGO standard one. 3) David replaced the generator with a transformer power supply and a selenium rectifier. 4) The church ran out of money while the organ was being built, hence the many shortcuts. -Gordon Slater

2020-10-26 - The organ was 9-ranks total, with 6 under expression and 3 unenclosed. Unexpressive: Diapason 1, Diapason 2, Doppel Flute, Double-valved Bourdon/Gedeckt (ext. Doppel Flute and Stopped Diapason), & harp Expressive: Violin Diapason, Stopped Diapason, Salicional, Aeoline, Cornopean, Oboe, and chimes. All ranks start on AAA, including the Pedal Bourdon/Gedeckt, which starts on AAAA in the 32' octave. -Gordon Slater


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