The Aeolian Co.
1921

Identified through online information from James R. Stettner. -- This was a used Welte Organ Co. player organ that was acquired in 1921 by Charles Frye from a bankrupt German family in Dresden, Germany. It was shipped through the Panama Canal and installed in the Frye home by a workman from Aeolian. The organ was recessed into a specially built chamber at the east end of the homes' art gallery. The starting mechanism was mounted in a common wall behind a Bougereau painting known as "The Little Shepherdess." Some 200 rolls had also been acquired. The organ was removed by Sandy Balcom of Balcom and Vaughan, assisted by Bill Bunch, sometime in the 1940s after Frye's death. Never having had a console, it was considered only useful for its pipework, which found its way into Balcom and Vaughan pipe organs at Our Redeemer Lutheran in N. Seattle, Fife Presbyterian in Fife, WA, and Calvary Lutheran in Everett, WA. The facade 2' Principal was acquired by Seattle resident Charles Wassberg for use in a home organ which never fully materialized and was later stored in the basement at Holy Trinity Lutheran in Seattle and ultimately given to the Pipe Organ Foundation of Mercer Island, WA. Sources: Balcom and Vaughan files; the book "Charlie Frye and His Times" by Helen E. Vogt; and Charles Wassberg.