The pipe organ

An 1884 Johnson & Son instrument that has never really left its original condition — and the names of the boys who kept the air in it.

Installed 1884

Almost everything you hear is original

Many visitors ask us about the beautiful pipe organ in our sanctuary. Installed in 1884, it used leather bellows, hand pumped until the late 1920s, when the hand-pumped bellows were replaced by an electric wind turbine. In 1984, a new blower system was installed.

A small door to the right of the organ opens to show the interior, still much the same as it was when the organ was installed. How well made was it? Except for the blower, most everything on the organ is original — even the original leather stops are still in use.

Look closely at the back of that door and you will see some names. These are the names of each person who pumped the original bellows.

One gentleman, Raymond Fisher, who pumped for five years between 1922 and 1927, visited us not long ago and said he got 25 cents for each service when he pumped the bellows. He also got 25 cents for cutting the grass.

The sanctuary seen from the back: wooden chairs, the chancel and cross, and the painted organ pipes rising on the right-hand wall. — The organ stands to the right of the chancel, where it has been since 1884.

Inside the case

The names on the bellows door

The wooden bellows door, its diagonal boards covered in pencilled signatures and dates. — The back of the small door beside the organ, pencilled over with the names of the people who pumped the bellows.

A pencilled inscription on the bellows door reading 'Raymond G. Fisher, Pumping 1922-1927'. — “Raymond G. Fisher — Pumping 1922–1927.” Twenty-five cents a service, and another twenty-five for cutting the grass.

The organ's stencilled front pipes in red, gold and olive with gilded mouths. — Front pipes in red, gold and olive, stencilled when the organ was new in 1884.

For the organists among you

Specification

1884 Johnson & Son opus 629, Westfield, Massachusetts. Two manuals and pedal.

Great — lower manual

8′Diapason
8′Melodia
8′Dulciana
8′Unison Bass
4′Octave
4′Flute
2′Super Octave
Bellows Signal

Swell — upper manual

8′Stopped Diapason
8′Violin Diapason
4′Harmonic Flute
8′Corno D'amour

Pedal

16′Bourdon
Pedal Check

Installed new in the church, an electric wind turbine was added in the later 1920s. The original bellows and feeders were removed and discarded in 1984 and replaced with a supply-house bellows. The organ is in fine condition and maintained by Lawrence Nevin of Derry, New Hampshire.

Next: the bell tower and its 1884 clock

Hear it on a Sunday morning.

Worship is at 8:45 AM, in the sanctuary at the corner of Routes 315 and 153, and on Zoom.

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