S. R. Warren & Sons
Opus Spec 3356, 1880

On July 26, 1880, an agreement was signed by S.R. Warren & Son and John Joseph Lynch, Archbishop of Toronto for the Roman Catholic Episcopal Corporation of the Diocese of Toronto, to construct and install in the Cathedral a gallery organ with winding by water motor. The cost of this instrument was Can$7,500, to be paid over a five-year period. By the late 1980s the Warren organ, since rebuilt, was in poor condition and was kept playing only through the efforts of the A.T. Jackson Co., who were contracted to service it biweekly. In 1993 the Cathedral’s organ loft was inspected and closed after it was found structurally deficient. The Warren organ lay silent, and for twenty years, all organ music in the Cathedral was provided by electronic substitutes.

Rather than tamper with the severely degraded Warren organ yet again, the Cathedral commissioned Casavant Frères to build a new organ, the firm’s Op. 3907, and to remove the Warren organ for safekeeping. The Warren is presently in storage in Saint-Hyacinthe, and what remains of its original pipework is to be restored and fashioned into a new organ for the auditorium of the choir school, pending construction of the new school building.

-- 2023 OHS Handbook

Listed as Spec. 3356. Originally operated by water motor. Said to have been brought from the Philadelphia Exposition. Repaired many times, but never fully rebuilt or restored. Unplayable 1997.