Um, Eric (KB7DQH),
You state, "As for the type of pipe instrument to be found in Seattle, there appear a great variety if one can believe the OHS database... and two of the public High Schools there also contain pipe organs ;) "
I take more than a little umbrage to your insinuation that the OHS Database might be wholly unreliable. If you check the OHS Database entries for Washington State,...you'll find that the preponderant number of entries have been made by yours truly - James R. Stettner - who has been documenting the history of pipe organs in Washington, Oregon, Montana, Idaho, Alaska, and Hawai'i for some 21 years now. Stoplists posted by me were copied verbatim from the console and include couplers, finger pistons, toe studs, pedal movements, and other misc. controls in addition to the standard list of stops by pitch and division. I am always VERY careful in my recording of information about each instrument. Most of the photos for the states listed above were also taken by me in my 21 years of documenting. To date, I have seen almost every pipe organ in this state with the exception of those in and around Walla Walla.
As to my qualifications, I did my apprenticeship in organ building with the Andover Organ Co. of Methuen, MA. restoring and caring for 19th century American trackers, and helping to build new mechanical-action instruments. After several years years with Andover I chose to move to the Pacific Northwest where my family had moved from Chicagoland. I ultimately ended-up in Seattle working for Balcom and Vaughan Pipe Organs, Inc. for 3 years before leaving with two other employees to found our own organ service firm. I continue to this day as a self-employed organ builder/technician with some 27 years of experience. I trust that will be adequate for any further remarks I make regarding pipe organs in the Northwest.
I am also a 25+ year member of the OHS and have served a couple-year term as Photo Manager of the OHS Database. I continue to be active as a contributor of new entries, updated entries, corrections, stoplists, and photos. I have several thousand photos and stoplists remaining to be posted!
The OHS Database is not perfect. It is run by ONE paid OHS staff person and supported by a team of volunteers. That included Photo Manager. We rely on submissions from the organ-interested public: enthusiasts, organists, organ builders. Not all of them are fully organ-saavy. So there are bound to be mistakes due to a lack of practical knowledge. In my experience, even most organists do NOT have a good grasp on the mechanics and physics of the instruments they play! It has been volunteers that have typed-up the opus lists for Moller, Reuter, Aeolian-Skinner, Skinner, Estey, Casavant, Hook & Hastings, etc. In short...labors of love by dedicated individuals.
As to the Greenlake SDA Church Casavant,...the OHS Database statement by Sean M. Haley is 100% accurate. Sean is an employee of Marceau & Associates Pipe Organs here in Seattle, and more than qualified enough to make that statement. In point of fact, the Allen dealer foolishly (or perhaps intentionally?!?!?) told the church they could get $75,000.00 for their Casavant. With ranks being retained for the new hybrid electro-digitronium...that meant that the remaining pipes/part were selling for roughly $2,000.00-per-register. To be blunt. . .NOT GONNA HAPPEN!!! The tragedy here is that both Marceau & Associates, AND the Pipe Organ Foundation of Mercer Island, WA. offered to remove the organ if it did not sell without cost to the church! And I know from a personal phone conversation with John Bishop of the Organ Clearing House that he DID find a buyer! But instead, the organ was literally ripped-out, with pipes heaped in the aisles before being dumped on the sidewalk and lawn outside. The console was dismantled to the extent that it could not have been re-assembled. I mean, they even pulled the felt rings out of the stopjambs! Windchests were ripped-open and pouchboards removed and thrown about. Rene Marceau took photos of the carnage, and they will appear on the OHS Database shortly. As far as I am concerned, Burton K. Tidwell should be hiding in his Kansas shop and hanging his head in absolute SHAME for being party to this wanton and unnecessary destruction. So much for being good stewards of the monies given by predecessors.
Yes...Roosevelt High School and Franklin High School have pipe organs. I've worked on both. The Roosevelt H.S. entry on the OHS Database is ACCURATE and includes photos of the original and present organ, and stoplists for both. I have not yet submitted either photos or the stoplist for the Franklin H.S. organ. If you (or anyone else) has a question about the veracity of an OHS Database entry, at least for this state, then please contact me and ask for clarification/confirmation. But otherwise, please keep concomitant criticisms and judgements to yourself. to quote a line from a Gilbert and Sullivan song from The Mikado, "The word for your guidance is mum!" :-X
As to Seattle organs in general...last I counted we had +/- 175. These cover all types of playing action and windchests (save for cone valve, I believe), and run from the mid-19th century to the present. We have organs of anywhere from 1-to-4 manuals. All of our 19th century trackers are transplants through the Organ Clearing House. Builders represented are: Aeolian-Skinner, Austin, Balcom and Vaughan, Bedient, Bond, Bosch, Brombaugh, Casavant, Deseret, Estey, Flentrop, Fritts, Hinners, Hook & Hastings, Hutchings-Votey, Jardine, Kilgen, Kimball, Kleuker, Marceau, Marr & Colton, Moller, Morton, Odell, Pasi, Pipe Organ Foundation, Reuter, Rosales, Schantz, Schlicker, Spaeth, Weck, Wicks, and Wurlitzer among those that come-to-mind easily.
Regarding Romantic/Orchestral organs as brought-up by guest AnOrganCornucopia, sadly we really have only two:The 4-manual, 1907 Hutchings-Votey at St. James R.C. Cathedral, and the IV-manual, 1927 Casavant at University Christian. The city had MANY large and romantic Kimball organs, but all have been replaced or rebuilt beyond recognition.
Respectfully ~
Jim S. (Seattle Organ Man)
You state, "As for the type of pipe instrument to be found in Seattle, there appear a great variety if one can believe the OHS database... and two of the public High Schools there also contain pipe organs ;) "
I take more than a little umbrage to your insinuation that the OHS Database might be wholly unreliable. If you check the OHS Database entries for Washington State,...you'll find that the preponderant number of entries have been made by yours truly - James R. Stettner - who has been documenting the history of pipe organs in Washington, Oregon, Montana, Idaho, Alaska, and Hawai'i for some 21 years now. Stoplists posted by me were copied verbatim from the console and include couplers, finger pistons, toe studs, pedal movements, and other misc. controls in addition to the standard list of stops by pitch and division. I am always VERY careful in my recording of information about each instrument. Most of the photos for the states listed above were also taken by me in my 21 years of documenting. To date, I have seen almost every pipe organ in this state with the exception of those in and around Walla Walla.
As to my qualifications, I did my apprenticeship in organ building with the Andover Organ Co. of Methuen, MA. restoring and caring for 19th century American trackers, and helping to build new mechanical-action instruments. After several years years with Andover I chose to move to the Pacific Northwest where my family had moved from Chicagoland. I ultimately ended-up in Seattle working for Balcom and Vaughan Pipe Organs, Inc. for 3 years before leaving with two other employees to found our own organ service firm. I continue to this day as a self-employed organ builder/technician with some 27 years of experience. I trust that will be adequate for any further remarks I make regarding pipe organs in the Northwest.
I am also a 25+ year member of the OHS and have served a couple-year term as Photo Manager of the OHS Database. I continue to be active as a contributor of new entries, updated entries, corrections, stoplists, and photos. I have several thousand photos and stoplists remaining to be posted!
The OHS Database is not perfect. It is run by ONE paid OHS staff person and supported by a team of volunteers. That included Photo Manager. We rely on submissions from the organ-interested public: enthusiasts, organists, organ builders. Not all of them are fully organ-saavy. So there are bound to be mistakes due to a lack of practical knowledge. In my experience, even most organists do NOT have a good grasp on the mechanics and physics of the instruments they play! It has been volunteers that have typed-up the opus lists for Moller, Reuter, Aeolian-Skinner, Skinner, Estey, Casavant, Hook & Hastings, etc. In short...labors of love by dedicated individuals.
As to the Greenlake SDA Church Casavant,...the OHS Database statement by Sean M. Haley is 100% accurate. Sean is an employee of Marceau & Associates Pipe Organs here in Seattle, and more than qualified enough to make that statement. In point of fact, the Allen dealer foolishly (or perhaps intentionally?!?!?) told the church they could get $75,000.00 for their Casavant. With ranks being retained for the new hybrid electro-digitronium...that meant that the remaining pipes/part were selling for roughly $2,000.00-per-register. To be blunt. . .NOT GONNA HAPPEN!!! The tragedy here is that both Marceau & Associates, AND the Pipe Organ Foundation of Mercer Island, WA. offered to remove the organ if it did not sell without cost to the church! And I know from a personal phone conversation with John Bishop of the Organ Clearing House that he DID find a buyer! But instead, the organ was literally ripped-out, with pipes heaped in the aisles before being dumped on the sidewalk and lawn outside. The console was dismantled to the extent that it could not have been re-assembled. I mean, they even pulled the felt rings out of the stopjambs! Windchests were ripped-open and pouchboards removed and thrown about. Rene Marceau took photos of the carnage, and they will appear on the OHS Database shortly. As far as I am concerned, Burton K. Tidwell should be hiding in his Kansas shop and hanging his head in absolute SHAME for being party to this wanton and unnecessary destruction. So much for being good stewards of the monies given by predecessors.
Yes...Roosevelt High School and Franklin High School have pipe organs. I've worked on both. The Roosevelt H.S. entry on the OHS Database is ACCURATE and includes photos of the original and present organ, and stoplists for both. I have not yet submitted either photos or the stoplist for the Franklin H.S. organ. If you (or anyone else) has a question about the veracity of an OHS Database entry, at least for this state, then please contact me and ask for clarification/confirmation. But otherwise, please keep concomitant criticisms and judgements to yourself. to quote a line from a Gilbert and Sullivan song from The Mikado, "The word for your guidance is mum!" :-X
As to Seattle organs in general...last I counted we had +/- 175. These cover all types of playing action and windchests (save for cone valve, I believe), and run from the mid-19th century to the present. We have organs of anywhere from 1-to-4 manuals. All of our 19th century trackers are transplants through the Organ Clearing House. Builders represented are: Aeolian-Skinner, Austin, Balcom and Vaughan, Bedient, Bond, Bosch, Brombaugh, Casavant, Deseret, Estey, Flentrop, Fritts, Hinners, Hook & Hastings, Hutchings-Votey, Jardine, Kilgen, Kimball, Kleuker, Marceau, Marr & Colton, Moller, Morton, Odell, Pasi, Pipe Organ Foundation, Reuter, Rosales, Schantz, Schlicker, Spaeth, Weck, Wicks, and Wurlitzer among those that come-to-mind easily.
Regarding Romantic/Orchestral organs as brought-up by guest AnOrganCornucopia, sadly we really have only two:The 4-manual, 1907 Hutchings-Votey at St. James R.C. Cathedral, and the IV-manual, 1927 Casavant at University Christian. The city had MANY large and romantic Kimball organs, but all have been replaced or rebuilt beyond recognition.
Respectfully ~
Jim S. (Seattle Organ Man)