2021-07-18 - (Full article including grammar or typos) St. John's Free Church Organ The Intelligencer Journal, Lancaster PA 8/31/1878 There will be services in St. John's Free church to-morrow morning and evening. In the morning the full communion service will be rendered, as announced on Sunday previous to the temporary closing of the church. The offering, morning and evening, will be devoted towards defraying the expenses of repairing and painting the organ The organ which formerly belonged to St James's (Episcopal), church and was presented to St. John's by Dr. John L. Atlee has been thoroughly rebuilt, and is now regarded as one of the handsomest and best in the city. The entire case has been regrained in oak, by Wm. Guthrie, the carpenter work has been finely executed by Mr. Sturgus, and the painting by George Pontz. Following is a description of the musical and mechanical features of the organ: It consists of a great and swell organ (with two manuals), the former having been built by the late John Wind sixty years ago, and the swell organ, added many years subsequently, constructed by Pomplitz, of Baltimore. The following are the features of the great organ: Open diapason, G to R in altissimo; viol de Gamba, four feet C to E (wood and metal); clarabella, eight feet C to E (wood); stopped diapason, running through the register (wood); principal, throughout (metal); fifteenth, through (metal); flute, through (wood); keraulaphon, four feet to E (metal). Swell Organ: Open diapason, four feet to E (metal); dulciana, tenor F to E (metal); stopped diapason, running through the register (wood); principal, through (metal), and diapason bass. Pedal organ: Bourdon, nineteen pipes; violoncello, nineteen pipes, Mechanical movements: swell organ to great, foot pedal to swell. There in all eighteen stop, including the mechanical movements. Messers Chamberlin & Holland, who rebuilt the organ, found that it had been greatly injured by amateurs tuners Many pipes required splicing owing to improper putch. A number of new "lips" and "flip-flaps," had to be soldered on. The pipes being of exceeding soft metal, could not be soldered with ordinary tinman's solder, and Messer's, Chamberlin & Holland had not made arrangements for the services of a pipe maker. They there-fore called into requisition the aid of Mr. Geist, who as an old stereotyper had been accustomed to that line of soft metal working. His work on the pipes Messrs Chamberlin & Holland pronounced worth $100 to the organ. He also bronzed in gold the four ranks of soft metal pipe forming a portion of the front pipes. The front pipes all speak, with thee or four exceptions. Mr Chamberlin says if the organ stood in the factory in the condition it now presents in St. John's it could not be bought for less than $1,000. The entire cost to the church will probably not exceed $250. --------------------------------------------------------------- Reports in the same paper around the Aug 10, 1878 issue, give a few more clues to the story. St Jame's Episcopal purchased a 17 stop Hook & Hastings, which a complete specification was given in the July 31 1878 issue of the paper. John Wind is listed as a resident of Lancaster, who ran a music store and built a few pipe organs. Another article, about the organs .in these two churches, says that Chamberlin and Holland were from Boston, and were "agents" of Hook & Hastings. David Fox's book on American organ builders does list a Henry P. Holland as a Hook employee in 1866. from "The Intelligencer Journal, Lancaster PA Aug 10, 1878 with other info added by articles, in the same paper Aug 12, 1878; July 31, 1878 July 20, 1878 -Steven Bartley
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