Better Pipe Organ Database

Aeolian-Skinner Organ Co. Opus 956 (1937)

St. Columba's Chapel / Berkeley Memorial Chapel
55 Vaucluse Ave.
Middletown, RI

Consoles

Main

Organ type: Traditional With Roll Top
Console position: Console in Fixed Position, Left
2 manuals
13 stops
16 registers
Key action Type: Electrical
Stop action Type: Electrical
Stop layout Type: Drawknobs in Vertical Rows on Angled Jambs
Manual compass: 61 notes
Pedal compass: 32 notes
Pedal Type: Concave Radiating (Details Unknown)
Expression Type: Balanced Expression Shoes/Pedals (Meeting AGO Standards)
Has crescendo
Combination action: Adjustable Combination Pistons
Has combination thumb pistons
Has combination toe pistons
Has coupler thumb pistons
Has coupler toe pistons
Has tutti thumb pistons
Has tutti toe pistons

Notes

2004-10-30 - Status Note: There 1996. -Database Manager

2004-10-30 - Also known as Berkeley Memorial Church. Altered? -Database Manager

2005-12-17 - Updated through online information from John Speller. -- Organ is situated in a chamber on north side of chancel with console detached at north end of nave facing into center aisle. The façade was retained from the previous organ. The previous organ is found on my Roosevelt opus list and was a 2 manual 12 stop tracker instrument by Frank Roosevelt, Op. 353 of 1887. -- Swell has 73-note extension octaves -Database Manager

2007-03-05 - Updated through information adapted from E. M. Skinner/Aeolian-Skinner Opus List, by Sand Lawn and Allen Kinzey (Organ Historical Society, 1997), and included here through the kind permission of Sand Lawn: Replaced 1886 two manual Roosevelt, #353; altered by Potter-Rathbun and by Raymond Whalon. -Database Manager

2018-09-13 - The 100-seat church is famous for having some of the most beautiful stained-glass windows in the United States, with eleven fabricated by the Tiffany Studios. -Database Manager

2023-01-05 - The original contract dated Feb. 2, 1937 was for $6,000.00 for delivery on Apr. 30, 1937. On Feb. 4, 1937, a set of Chimes was added for an additional $400.00, the cost to be added to the final of four scheduled payments: signing, ready for factory assembly, delivery, completion. -Scot Huntington

Stoplist

Contract courtesy Allen Kinzey Source: Specification from original contract Feb. 2, 1937

Middletown, Rhode Island
St. Columba's Episcopal Church / Berkeley Memorial Church

Aeolian-Skinner Organ Co., Inc.   Opus 956   1937
2 manuals, 13 stops, 15 ranks
_________________________________________________________

                   GREAT ORGAN
                8' Diapason             61
                8' Flute Couverte       61
                8' Dulciana             61
                4' Principal            61
                2' Fifteenth            61
			 
                   SWELL ORGAN
                8' Geigen               73
                8' Rohrflöte            73
                8' Salicional           73
                8' Voix Celeste (TC)    61
                4' Flute Triangulaire   73
              III  Mixture             183
                8' Trumpet              73
                   Tremolo
                   Swell 16'
                   Swell 4'
				
                   PEDAL ORGAN
               16' Principal            44
               16' Bourdon (ext Sw)     12
                8' Octave (fr. Prin)    --
                8' Flute (Sw)           --

                   COUPLERS
                   Swell to Great 
                   Swell to Great 16', 4'
                   Great to Pedal
                   Swell to Pedal 
                   Swell to Pedal 4'


[Received from Steven E. Lawson  2014-08-13]

Documents

Factory blueprint Blueprint of the original Aeolian-Skinner layout. -Scot Huntington

Websites

Opus 956: St. Columba's - The Berkeley Memorial Chapel - Stoplist, Photograph. [Aeolian-Skinner Archives Web Site] (Check Internet Archive, archive.is)

Related Pipe Organ Database Entries

#63761 - Potter-Rathbun (1968)