Newtown Meeting House––

An Ailing Pipe Organ Gets A Transplant

By Dottie Evans

Nothing beats the full sound of a beautiful old pipe organ.

The quality of that sound is a product of not only the organist’s talent, but of all the organ systems working together in the unique space for which it was built.

The word “built” is appropriate because each part may have been manufactured by a separate company and then put together by the organ builder. Over time, different organ parts may be refitted, removed, and then recycled.

As a result, there can be a lot of history tied up in an old organ like the one built by Henry Hall Company of West Haven in the late 1920s that sits in the loft gallery of the Newtown Meeting House.

Along with the history comes the need for repair and updating –– a task that Newtown Meeting House Administrator Sherry Paisley is glad to hand over to experts like the Foley-Baker Company of Tolland.

The Newtown Meeting House has served the community in a variety of ways for more than two centuries. Most recently it was a Congregational Church, and in February 1988, it was taken over by the Heritage Preservation Trust of Newtown, Inc, for civic purposes.

When repairs to its organ were undertaken in September 2001 by Foley-Baker, all the organ pipes and chests within the upstairs organ chamber were removed, reconditioned, and reinstalled. But it was clear that the console with its four manuals was inappropriate for current use.

“Only eight stops were actually working, and only one of the four keyboards controlled all 314 pipes. This presented quite a challenge to our guest artists,” Ms Paisley commented.

“We hoped to find a two-manual console to replace it.”

She asked the people at Foley-Baker to keep an eye out for one.

“They are a delight to work with. I knew I could count on them.”

 

Out With The Old, In With The New

When the Harry Hall organ was originally installed at the Newtown Meeting House in 1914, it ran without the benefit of electricity. That beautiful pipe organ sound was provided by air power created by a massive set of two hand-operated leather bellows.

In 1915 when electricity was installed, electrical connections were created to operate blowers so the pipes would sound. These electrical connections –– many of them dating back more than 80 years –– had become unreliable.

“Some parts of the old console definitely needed to go. They had simply worn out,” Ms Paisley said.

It was not long before the Foley-Baker people located another console, and they installed it in December 2003. It was originally built in 1927 by the M.P. Möller Company of Hagerstown, and it will now act as the driver of the original the Harry Hall “Echo Division” pipe organ.

At the same time that Foley-Baker installed the console, an up-to-date electrical switching system was added by Newtown electrician Stanley Perrone.

“The Möller console used to be in St Joseph’s Church in Bristol. It had been pneumatic, so we had to convert it to electrical. It was so well built that it could be refitted and reused. It’s a real work horse,” she added.

Best of all, it has two manuals instead of four.

“We use the organ for our weddings, and the Presbyterian Church uses it every Sunday for their services,” Ms Paisley said.

“Having a fine organ makes the meeting house a sterling place. It’s hard to find an organ like this that is not in a church. It’s got all the bells and whistles.”

The outdated console had been made by Englishman John Turnell Austin in Hartford at the turn of the last century. In 1899, Mr Austin established his own company in Hartford, and Austin consoles and frames have been built at that location ever since.

The M.P. Möller Company was a thriving concern until the 1970s. The “new” console’s metal ID plate indicates that it was an Opus 5443 dated 1927. By New Year’s Day 2004, the Möller console was already in use at the Newtown Meeting House.

As for the “old” Austin console, the keyboard and pedals will go to the Brookfield Congregational Church, and as Ms Paisley said, “they will be delighted to have it” because it fits the need.

It seems that some organ parts never die. They just get refitted, recycled, or traded away.