Daniel Meyer
1996

The organ is reported to have been originally built by S.S. Hamill as a 1 manual instrument c. 1870 and then the present 2m chassis and is from Charles Haskell of Philadelphia who divided the channels of the windchest and provided an excellent new action in 1895. The organ was for Bethany Lutheran Church in Philadelphia. The synopsis of the stops is likely a typical GT 8.8.8.4, SW 8.8.8 Bass,4.8, Ped 16, Compass 61/25. The mechanism is very fine with a good touch, a pleasure to play. The organ reached First Street Baptist, 217 Fulton Street, Hanover, PA in 1960 and then ended up in a storage barn c. 1970. It had been parted out, case missing and many pipes. The chassis and keydesk were intact.

Thomas Eader of Baltimore relocated the organ to Abiding Savior Church in 1983, making the present case work and rebuilding the stoplist with pipes from various sources. The design leaned in the direction of neo-baroque recasting of historic instruments.

Subsequently the organ has been rebuilt and made very reliable by Tom Allen who still maintains the instrument. He also improved the tonal scheme. It is likely that there are very few original pipes in this organ. Tom worked on the instrument 1991-92 collaborating with Ray Brunner who rebuilt and retabled the windchest, rebuilt the keyboards and releathered the reservoir. Tom added a larger curtain valve. A reconditioned Oboe & Basson was obtained from Trivo and installed in the Great Division. A few years later in 1996 Tom collaborated with Dan Meyer and revised the pedal Bourdon and pedalboard increasing the compass to 30 notes. Since it is on electric action the stop was extended to 8’ and is seen in the center flat of the case.

The result is an instrument that has a good working stoplist that provides a robust chorus and softer voices for accompaniment. The expansion of the Pedal allows that division to provide both 16’ and 8’ tone if one wants to accompany Manual II stops with the 4’ Principal, played an octave lower. There are organs of greater size, all new and with exquisite visual aspects that don’t get the job done musically. This instrument gets the music out. It has an engaging sound and is comfortable to play. In its present form has proven to be reliable.

Hilbus Chapter Newsletter, August 2024, p. 6.