Pipe Organ Database

For further information see E. & G. G. Hook & Hastings

Note from the OHS PC Database, derived from A Guide to North American Organbuilders, by David H. Fox (Richmond, Va., Organ Historical Society, 1991). Note revised by Builders Editor Stephen Hall, September 8, 2019. —

Born 1807 in Salem, Massachusetts; brother of Elias Hook, father of Frederick Clapp Hook.

George Hook, along with his older brother, Elias, apprenticed with William Goodrich of Boston, Massachusetts. The Hook brothers built their first organ while operating a music store in Salem, Massachusetts, in 1827. Four years later, they established the organ firm of E. & G. G. Hook in Boston, Massachusetts, 1831. George served as voicer and tonal director, while Elias ran the business office. The firm became E. & G.G. Hook & Hastings in 1872 when junior partner Francis Hastings became a full partner.

George G. Hook died September 15, 1880 in Boston, Massachusetts. Francis Hastings succeeded him as head voicer and tonal director.

Sources:

• Orpha Ochse, The History of the Organ in the United States (Bloomington: Indiana University Press, 1975), 124.
• Barbara Owen, The Organ in New England (Raleigh: Sunbury Press, 1979), 405.
• Forrest Mack, "The Hook Family: New Light Through Two letters from Elias Hook to His Sister", The Tracker 36:3 (Richmond, Va., Organ Historical Society, 1992), 19.