Scot Huntington on January 2nd, 2023:
The organ was acquired by Ed Boadway from the Organ Clearing House in 1978 while he was organist there. Its original home was the Episcopal Church in Stamford, New York, a small town near Delhi along the northern edge of the Catskill Mt. region. The organ replaced an aging an increasingly dysfunctional Conn electronic. It was conserved without change by Boadway and Scot Huntington, then newly hired as an apprentice with A. David Moore in N. Pomfret, Vt. The original stencilled facade had been repainted gold in Stamford, and the pipes were stripped and redecorated by Boadway and Huntington. While it was being refurbished prior to its reinstallation, there was a roof leak over the organ which heavily damaged the Stopped Diapason treble pipes, several having dissolved into pieces. The pipes were taken home by Huntington an spread out in front of his living room wood stove to dry out. A guest mistakingly used the pipe pieces as kindling to start a fire in the stove, and I had to replicate these seven pipes, treating the pipe surface treatments in such a way they matched the originals so unfortunately, it is now difficult to tell the originals from the copies.
Boadway retained ownership of the instrument and it was "on loan" to the Lutherans after Boadway moved on to another organist position in town. When Prince of Peace closed in 1985, Boadway sold the organ to the Lutheran church in Boyleston, Mass. and it was moved and installed without change. At some point during its time in Boyleston, either Jeremy Cooper or David Hagburg substantially altered the organ, changing the Dulciana into a double-draw mixture and expanding the short-compass pedal Bourdon to full compass. The Boyleston church replaced the Midmer with a two-manual George Reed acquired through the Organ Clearing House in 1999 and the organ was sold or given to St. Andrew's Episcopal church in Turners Falls, Mass. where it was moved and installed by David Hagburg without further change, although at some point after Claremont, the right side of the case unfortunately vanished.
The St. Andrew's parish merged with a parish in neighboring Greenfield in 2018 and the building was sold to a developer to become an Air B&B. Working with the new owner, Scot Huntington worked to relocate the organ at the eleventh hour-- it ultimately being given by the developer and St. Andrew's congregation to St. Joseph's Catholic Church in Claremont, N.H. This well-travelled little organ was moved and restalled there in its fifth home without further change by volunteers under the direction of Lubbert Gnodde in time for Easter services in 2018.
Database Manager on October 30th, 2004:
The original builder was Reuben Midmer & Sons (c. 1885).
Database Manager on October 30th, 2004:
Status Note: There 1980
Database Manager on October 30th, 2004:
OCH from Grace Episcopal, Stamford, NY c. 1978. Restored by Ed. Boadway. Apparently on loan from Ed Boadway. Relocated to Christ Lutheran, West Boylston, MA c. 1985.