2023-11-08 - Our Lady of the Lake Church, built to replace an earlier French-Canadian parish, Notre Dame du Lac, was opened in 1907. The pipe organ was installed in 1909. Source: "Silver Jubilee of Notre Dame du Lac," in*The Evening Record* (Windsor, Ontario), Oct. 26, 1909, pg. 1. In 1912, a portion of Sandwich East Township became known as Ford City. Ford City changed its name to East Windsor in 1928 until it amalgamated with the City of Windsor in 1935. When the church closed in 2007, it was known as Our Lady of the Rosary Roman Catholic Church. In 2023, the former church is known as Water's Edge Event Centre. -Ian Mason
2023-11-10 - Updated through online information from Ian Mason: *"Just heard from a Windsor organist who was familiar with this organ. Ron Dossenbach writes: 'In the 1970s, the organ was in a balcony at the back of the church and the console was near the front. I think it was a Karn. The delay was the most severe of any organ I played ever. Almost a beat long! The next time I encountered it was after it was decommissioned and a local entrepreneur by the name of Larry Horvath bought the church and re-purposed it as a general events venue. By this time, Don Pole (Pole & Kingham Pipe Organ Services, Chatham, Ontario) moved the organ to the front of the church behind the altar and above, within the structure of the building. Very effective and it eliminated the delay. A nice trumpet was added' * *'They wound up slicing through the cables at the console including the wind trunk in order to move the console out of the way of the new floor installers. The console now rests along the wall as a curiosity. It is never used.'" * -Jim Stettner
2023-11-11 - Don Pole, former owner of Pole and Kingham Pipe Organ Company of Chatham, Ontario recalls: "The organ was undoubtedly pneumatic when in the back gallery. The Casavant representative from Michigan must have moved it to the apse gallery. That was when the organ was electrified. Casavant provided the electrical components, new chests for the Bourdon and facade pipes, new Ventus blower, new tremulant and new reservoirs. Pole & Kingham started taking care of it in the early 1980s. The Trumpet pipes were missing, and the organist said that the original Trumpet pipes were stepped on during the move, thus not installed! In 2003, we installed a new Trumpet from Organ Supply Industries and 12 used bass pipes for the Dulciana. The bass of the Trumpet and Dulciana were put on a new chest I built." -Ian Mason
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