Jim Stettner on July 31st, 2022:
From a Facebook Messenger message from James David Christie to OHS Database editor James R. Stettner on July 22, 2022, *"The Music Department at Holy Cross did not want to keep the organ in the concert hall and asked me to find someone to take it. At Holy Cross, it was very difficult to access on fhe concert hall which was always busy with orchestra, Gamelon classes, rehearsals and practice, chamber music, classes, concerts, etc. They also did not want to pay for a professional restoration and I had no luck finding a benefactor for the project.* *It was then given to Oberlin who paid to have it cleaned, carefully disassembled, and transported to Oberlin ( Hal Gober, who was curator of organs at Oberlin, did the work with a small team of helpers). We tried to find a good place for it in Oberlin without any success and had to keep it in an air controlled storage. The problem at Oberlin was that there was no place of importance for it where it could be showcased. I had a benefactor there lined up to pay for the restoration, but he insisted it be placed in a prominent place on campus. Our Art Museum, which is gorgeous, refused to house it as it is very small and the organ would have taken up valuable space. They also had strictures on when and how it could be used that would have made it very difficult and inconvenient to use.* *It then went to Rutgers and they had a professional restoration done. Rutgers was going to install it in their museum devoted to American art. My former student, Renée Louprette, and her husband, Prof. George Stauffer who was Dean of the Music Department, headed that project. I was then told the museum decided they did not want it and they were going to install it in their chapel.*

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Jim Stettner on July 26th, 2022:
This entry represents the gift of the organ to Oberlin Conservatory of Music. Identified thru a July 22, 2022 Facebook Messenger message from James David Christie to James R. Stettner. The organ has had five previous homes: -1840: Perkins school for the Blind in Watertown, Massachusetts. -1865: Baptist Church in Biddeford, Maine. Installed by E. & G.G. Hook. -1979: Residence: John & Linda Shortridge in Phippsburg, Maine. Organ Clearing House. -1996: St. Barholomew's Episopal in Yarmouth, Maine. Inst. by David E. Wallace. -20_?: given to Holy Cross College in Worcester, MA. No placement found. Given to Oberlin. It was never installed at Oberlin and was placed in climate-controlled storage. It was then given to Rutgers University in New Jersey.