Church Of The Holy Name, Episcopal

	Leathering	Placement	Console	Positive Observations	Problems	Recommendations
Barbara Owen 25-Oct-1999	Rapidly reaching the end of useful life. Releathering in mandatory.	Need a shallow organ chamber, pull the organ forward. Suggests a front and center placement behind or adjacent to altar.	Primitive, shoddy, the action is irregular, the combinations are erratic and noisy. Veneer is peeling.	I think that you are off to a good start, and, most importantly, are asking all the right questions.	Dead notes. The 1923 pneumatic tubing, wiring, switching, magnets, and chest leathers are rapidly nearing the end of their useful life. Removal of non essential chancel carpeting should be considered.	If rebuilt further tonal changes would be advisable. For used organ attractive casework could be an asset. A new organ could be custom designed tonally and visually.
Allen Kinzey 26-Sep-1998	The reservoirs are showing cracks in the leathers. The leather will soon need to be replaced.	The biggest drawback to the organ is the location. No insulation in walls makes tuning problems. The deep narrow chamber is a deterrence to a good projection of the sound.	This console was giving problems back in the 70s, and still is. The only solution is to replace with a good quality console.	The tonal changes to the organ (made in the 70s) helped make the organ more suitable for your musical needs. A principal chorus was developed on the Great to help with congregational singing.	When changes were made the drive to get sound out of the chamber was sacrificed. There is disunity to the sound, it should be a tonally cohesive whole. The source of the sound must be in the same room without restrictions of sound travel.	This organ in this location is not adequate for your musical needs. The cost to make changes to the organ and location to suit your needs would not be cost effective.. Suggests a new or used replacement.
Charles N. Clutz 26-Sep-1998	No specific mention of the leather.	Perhaps the organ can be pulled out or a cantilever employed to help in the projection of the sound. Vaughan did work toward solving this problem in other churches and chapels.	No specific mention of the console.	Some changes can be made immediately without the expenditure of great sums of money.	This is not a "live" room. The depth of the organ chamber and acoustical problems are not working in favor of organ projection.	Organ chamber should be shallow and insulated. Acoustical changes should be considered before tonal changes to the organ. Some carpeting and all padding should be removed. Plaster in the chancel could be covered in blue board to reflect sound better.
Thad Outerbridge 8-Apr-1994	There is evidence that some pipes are not getting the full amount of wind, which is indicitive of leather failure. To attempt a partial releathering is, of course, not cost effective.	No specific mention of the placement.	A cheap and increasingly unreliable console.	One could utilize the good pipes that exist, prune away some which need retirement, and plan a tonally balanced , complete two manual organ.	The organ is reaching a state where it will soon be urgent. One cannot expect mechanisms from 1922 to function forever. Mechanically the organ is living on borrowed time.	Skinner organs are usually worthy of restoration, but this one would be so expensive to restore that it makes more sense to empty the organ chamber and start from scratch using the technology of today plus the best from the past.
Thad Outerbridge 13-Oct-2000	The leather work needs to be replaced.	If the wind chests are replaced, the organ could be pulled out a bit from the chamber to increase the sound that travels to the nave.	No one would dispute that the console should be replaced.	Many of the existing pipes can be reused.	There is no room in the organ chamber for expansion. The current wind chests are in good condition, but need releathering. The cost of rebuilding them would be the same as replacing them with more reliable slider chests.	Suggests replacing everything except some of the pipes. This organ is not worth rebuilding or restoring.
Richard W. Hill 26-Sep-1998	The organs wind chests will require releathering in the near future.	No specific mention of the placement.	The console will eventually have to be replaced.	With care, and a spirit of stewardship, your church can meet its future musical needs. It will be hard work requiring patience and much learning, but many have gone this road before you.	The church has an acoustically dead environment. The chancel prevents most of the sound from reaching the nave. No amount of repair will bring satisfactory results without insulating the chamber and adding reflective materials.	There are 3 options available: 1. Rebuild present organ & replace console. 2. Sell existing organ and buy used organ. 3. Sell the existing organ and buy a new organ. Hire a good consultant such as Barbara Owen (done).
Elizabeth Carley 26-Sep-1998	The original 1922 leather will soon wear out.	Try to get the sound out into the room to in order to encircle the congregation for inspired singing. Your present placement is so far back and enclosed that much of the sound is lost.	The console should probably be replaced.	The spiritual uplift and sense of community which are derived from congregational singing will bring new members into your church and will infuse new life into your worship.	This is not a pure Skinner organ any more. This organ is probably not worth preserving.This organ will cost you money.	This organ should be replaced. A fine electropneumatic or tracker organ might be available from the Organ Clearing House. Another possibility would be replacing the organ with a tracker organ and the choir in the back of the church.
Dick LaHaise 18-Mar-1999	We might have another decade of service from the organ. At that time the leathering would give out.	No specific mention of the placement.	No specific mention of the console.	The changes that Kinzey made on the organ (in the 70s) were to brighten and clarify its sound to benefit congregational singing.	Due to placement of the Choir division, at the time of releathering we will lose the use of the Choir division.	The report centered around current condition of the organ, not on recommendations for the future.
Don Olson - Andover Organ Company 31-Aug-2000	No specific mention is made of the leathering.	The chests are located in a chamber which is essentially another room. The sound does not get out as it should, and when it does it is in the chancel which is another room acoustically. By the time it gets into the nave, the sound is much diminished.	The present console needs to be replaced and all of the wiring and mechanism of the organ must be rebuilt or replaced to meet current electrical standards.	The 1974 tonal revision was a giant leap tonally.	Had the original Skinner organ not been changed, it would be well worth preserving, but perhaps not as a church instrument. There are still remnants of the Skinner, and nothing works as it should.	It is our opinion that the instrument be replaced with either a new organ especially designed for your building, or a used organ With the proposed used tracker organ, there is considerable savings. This instrument should last at least 100 years.
Joseph Rotella Spencer Organ Company 12-July-2000	All of the leather has deteriorated, and needs to be replaced. The reservoirs could fail very soon	We propose to move the organ case out slightly, both to allow better projection of tone and to provide room for the addition of one or two Great stops.	We suggest a used Skinner console of appropriate size (we have one on hand)...	The original Skinner mechanism is intact and in essentially good restorable condition. Put into first-class shape, this surely would be a marvelous church organ -- notable for its lineage to be sure, but first and last a wonderful and versatile church organ. It contains the best mechanism. Skinner built and has a potential too great to ignore.	The instrument is in frankly appalling condition...	Restore existing Skinner mechanism, retain all unaltered pipework, restore altered pipe work where suitable, add new and old pipes to the organ. Move organ case out slightly [for] better projection of tone and addition of one or two Great stops. Furnish a used Skinner console to accommodate the larger stoplist while again respecting the Skinner aesthetic.

Last updated: Saturday, September 3, 2005