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The Diapason February, 2007 THE DIAPASON FEBRUARY, 2007 Austin Organs Milestones 1893 – 1937 – 2007 Cover feature on pages 30–31 Copyright © THE DIAPASON. Used with permission. Cover feature: Austin Organs Milestones 1893 – 1937 – 2007 The old factory pany was producing over 80 new pipe organs annually. This trend continued until the crash of 1929 and ensuing depression era. The company soldiered on, a bit weakened because of the lack of new business, tremendous overhead (the factory was expanded over three times from its original footprint), and company financing of new instruments to church- es, from which payments only dribbled in. In July 1935, THE DIAPASON pub- Key for the cover illustration lished the announcement that the Austin 1. Original factory building, 158 Wood- Organ Company would close its doors. land Street. Occupied from 1899–1937. The Austin mechanism 2. Opus 2, Sweetest Heart of Mary Non-specific Austin assets and raw mate- Church, Detroit, 2 manuals, 20 stops. Still in rials were sold, and remaining contracts regular service. early instruments, Opus 2 from 1894 organ continues to be heard in regular were completed (the final A.O.C. con- 3. Opus 500, Panama-Pacific Exhibition, for example, continue to play well year concerts and events. Dr. Carol Williams tract was number 1885). A few folks San Francisco, 4 manuals, 121 stops. Dam- after year. retains the position as Municipal remained to complete warranty work and aged in a 1989 earthquake, it remains in stor- A discussion of the Austin mecha- Organist, performing regularly to hun- move the Austin tools and machines into age awaiting completion of restoration and nism would easily consume an entire dreds (www.sosorgan.com). This organ storage. At this time, young Frederic installation. volume, but in digest form, the organ was originally built for the Panama-Cal- Basil Austin and long-time employee 4. Opus 2536, Trinity College Chapel, Hartford, 3 manuals, 62 stops. utilizes one manual motor (primary ifornia Exposition, before being re-gift- Harold Dubrule kept the fires burning 5. Opus 2719, Our Lady of Czestochowa, note action) for each note, or key, in a ed to the city. by completing some small rebuilds and Doylestown, Pennsylvania, 4 manuals, 65 division, and one stop action motor for Meanwhile, up the coast in San Fran- service jobs. It was this association that stops. each stop on a main windchest. The cisco, the Panama-Pacific Exposition in inspired John T. Austin’s nephew to con- 6. Opus 453, The Organ Pavilion, Balboa valves under each pipe are not leather San Francisco would open just two sider purchasing the company, a process Park, San Diego, 4 manuals, 62 stops. pouches, such as one might find in a months later and run concurrently with that was completed in 1937. 7. Opus 323, City Hall Auditorium, Port- Skinner, Möller, or other electro-pneu- the San Diego event. Austin was chosen land, Maine, 5 manuals, 124 stops. matic instrument, but in an Austin, they from a list of about 31 builders to con- The second Austin milestone: 8. Opus 2768, St. Mary’s College, Moraga, 1937—reorganization and move California, 4 manuals, 68 stops. are simply mechanical valves connected struct the organ for this exposition, and 9. Opus 2782, Fountain Street Church, by wooden trackers (yes, trackers!) to was given a stiff timeline: six months! It into a new facility Grand Rapids, Michigan, 4 manuals, 139 stops. the manual motor for each particular was completed the very morning that the The “new” Austin Organs, Incorporat- 10. The “new” factory building (1937), as note. This mechanism is reliable and exposition opened. When the exposition ed opened its doors in February of 1937. expanded several times. inherently self-adjusting. Springs and was concluded, the organ was moved to The transition from the old management Center: The Austin Universal Airchest felt guides allow wild changes in the Civic Auditorium. The city’s new to the new Austin was as seamless as logo, including the crest with the motto: Sci- humidity and temperature with no municipal organist, Edwin Lemare, could be expected. They were able to entia Artem Adjuvat. The motto and crest are degradation in performance. The whole specified scores of tonal and mechanical return most employees to their worksta- said to have been the design of former Austin employee Robert Hope-Jones. concept is, in a word, brilliant! changes that he required the Austin tions, however, in a scaled-down facility Background: The background is a blue- In 1899, perhaps the apex of the Company to complete upon re-installa- located directly behind the behemoth print, Opus 2786, Assumption Church, West- American Industrial Revolution, John tion. Of primary concern was the fact structure that had been home to the port, Connecticut. T. Austin was just 30 years old when he that the organ was being moved from a company for the previous 36 years. For moved into the facility on Woodland space that seated 3,000 to an auditorium the first few years, the company leased The first Austin milestone: Street in Hartford, Connecticut. Leg- with a capacity of over 10,000. The organ the property from G. F. Heublein & Bro. 1893—the first instrument end has it that that the crew (including had many years of fame, but fell to near- Distributors—liquor distributors for The Austin story begins like so many JTA) was installing the organ at the obscurity in the late 1950s. In 1963, the much of the East Coast, famous for their tales of European emigration. It was in Fourth Congregational Church (Opus Austin firm built a stunning black lacquer pre-mixed “Club Cocktails.” A wooden the year 1889 that young John T. 22, now the Liberty Christian Center) drawknob console. It saw a bit more use, guard mounted to an ancient band saw Austin sailed for the shores of the new when the factory in Detroit burned to but the horrific 1989 Loma Prieta earth- that is still in service in the Austin mill is world with a man he met who was vis- the ground. Actually, John T. Austin was quake rendered the organ silent. The actually a trespassing warning sign from iting England (the Austin family native in Woodstock, Ontario, supervising the organ sustained some damage due to the pre-1937 Heublein days. Within a soil) and was returning to California. construction of the first and only Austin falling debris. Funds were eventually few years, the property was purchased by The Austin family was considerably organ constructed by the Karn-Warren allocated to repair and re-install the the Austin corporation, and over the next well off: Jonathan Austin (the father) Company. The date of the fire was Feb- organ. The organ was returned to Hart- three decades the buildings were was a “gentleman farmer,” whose ruary 2, 1899 (the feast of Candlemas!). ford, and much work had been complet- expanded several times. hobby was tinkering with organs and On March 31 of that year, the Austin ed, but a few months into the project, a organbuilding. During the voyage, all Organ Company was incorporated in directive from the city ordered the organ of John’s money was liberated from his the state of Maine. The company actual- to be returned to San Francisco. It person before arriving in New York, ly signed a contract for a new organ on remains in storage beneath the city, presumably the result of the kindness March 1 of that year and rented factory much like that final scene of Indiana of his traveling companion! space in Boston—just down the street Jones’s Raiders of the Lost Ark! Penniless, he used his extraordinary from the first, soon-to-be Skinner organ Opus 558 would be the company’s wits to find his way to Michigan, and factory. The following August, the board first five-manual instrument, built for was immediately hired by the Farrand of directors authorized the acquisition the Medinah Temple (Masonic Lodge) & Votey firm in Detroit. In a few years’ of the Hartford facility. in Chicago. This organ also had a sister time, he had become plant superinten- The business moved along quickly. It stopkey console of four manuals. Dur- dent, and in his free time he developed would be safe to say that most instru- ing this period, the company production a concept for a new type of windchest. ments of this period were of moderate averaged over 60 new pipe organs a The new factory (current configuration) After building and servicing bar and size; literally dozens of three and four- year! The next major instrument would slider (tracker organ) windchests, and manual instruments were delivered be for the Eastman Theater (for the The original factory was rather certainly seeing many of the new elec- between 1900 and 1915. This was the Eastman School of Music); Opus 1010 foursquare—four stories, small foot- tro-pneumatic actions coming on the point in Austin’s history when some was a unique theatre organ—the largest print. Then a separate wood frame scene, he was convinced that there rather significant and interesting instru- ever—of 229 stops! It was, sadly, structure was built that served as an must be a better way. The folks at Far- ments were installed. For example: removed in the 1970s. There were addi- erecting room, then a fire, then the mill rand & Votey were not interested, so in Opus 323, The Kotzschmar Memorial tional notable instruments during this and new brick erecting room, additions 1893 he built and sold a new organ that Organ (www.foko.org) was built for the time: the University of Colorado to the main building that became pneu- he built at the Clough & Warren (reed City Hall in Portland, Maine.
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