2021-07-19 - This entry represents the rehabilition of this organ by Harold Mangler, his son Alfred of Cranston, and Arpard Fazakas of Nutely, New Jersey. The elder Mangler and Fazakas were employees at Hutchings at the time this organ was built. After leaving Hutchings, Mangler settled in the Providence area with a maintenance business-- there being a good number of Hutchings organs within 50 miles. Alfred communicated the details of the 1947 work in a letter to Nelson Barden shortly before he died in the 1980s. Mr. Mangler Sr. thought the job to ambitious for him alone, which is the reason he enlisted the aid of Mr. Fazakas to assist. The organ was "releathered', although in what detail is unknown-- it would have been unusual for 1903 leather to need replacement when it was only 40 years old. However, Alfred related the university was miserly with the funding so the chests or reservoirs couldn't be removed for releathering and it was done in place. His letter suggests the leathering was of the manual chests and extensive. Shortly after this work in 1947, the organ received a new Schantz console with a built-in pneumatic combination action in 1949. The organ also received several tonal alterations, but whether those took place in 1947 or 1949 is unclear. At any rate, the 1949 console included those alterations. It is unclear at the present time whether the 1949 work was a continuation of the work begun in 1947 with materials purchased from the Schantz company, or whether the 1949 work was an independent contract with Schantz. The Great First Open was removed, (some pipes were still lying about the chamber in 1981 and salvaged by Nelson Barden, their whereabouts unfortunately now unknown). The Second Diapason was promoted to the First, the Choir Violin Diapason was moved to become the Second, and a new spurious rank of Hoyt metal pipes of decent tone became the new Choir Diapason. The Choir Dulciana 16' was placed on a unit action and made to play also at 8' pitch, the original Dulciana 8' being removed and replaced with the Swell Violina 4'. The Violina in turn was replaced with a new 4' Octave of thin spotted metal, whose zinc and pipe metal bear the same appearance as the four new stops also added to the Swell at this time. The Pedal Trombone always played at a higher pressure (now static pressure of approx. 7" since the installation of the Spencer blower around WWI), and two new trumpets were added to the Swell at 8' and 4' on a new pneumatic chest, also speaking on the higher static pressure. In addition, a low-pressure Clarion 4' and Nasard 2 2/3' were added on another independent two-stop chest. To accommodate the new additions sited in front of the main chests, the Swell shade frame was extended forward toward the facade using beadboard to extend the sides of the original double-thickness expression box. No other changes were made to the organ at this time, still sounding at its original pitch, pressures, and voicing. The organ remained in this condition until the early 1980s when Nelson Barden was engaged to refurbish the organ-- there being a multitude of dead notes and leaking reservoirs. Barden returned the organ to full playability and releathered the reservoirs-- the action leather being in good condition. The Potter-Rathbun company had maintained the organ for several decades, and when it came time for a major restoration in 1991, (an logical extension of the work begun in 1981), the University accepted their bid, being the lowest. Unfortunately, the original side-bar pitman chests of Hutchings were replaced at this time with new Moller slider chests which have a deleterious effect on the action speed, repetition, and pipe speech. Every pipe toe was reshaped to eliminate toe leakage on the new chests, and consequently all the original toe hole measurements were lost. The current wind pressures are also suspect, the organ today being demonstrably louder, brighter, and less full than it was originally, with slow and ragged pipe speech issues. It is hoped that someday in the future, renovation work will resolve these issues and return the organ to its former glory. There are only a small handful of large Hutchings organs remaining, and the Brown organ represents the only remaining concert hall instrument by the firm. -Scot Huntington
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