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Updated by Scot Huntington, naming this as the source of information: Contract: Set. 9, 1926.
The contract quote a delivery date of April 15, 1927, for $16,500.00. This was a standard Skinner contract form specifying four installments of 25% ($4,125.00): signing, ready for assembly in the erecting room, upon delivery, and immediately upon completion and acceptance in the presence of the Builder. The contract specification was altered on November 27, 1926 for an unspecified amount of money and which added 75 pipes to the original contracted pipe count, and modified again several days later on December 1, 1926 with the addition of a set of Chimes with three stopknobs for an additional $500.00. The stoplist printed below represents the November revision from the September original but is incorrect in that it omits both the added Chimes stop to each manual and pedal, and the two-rank Cello Celeste in Expression box II on both manual divisions. The original contract specified a Tierce 1 3/5\' extension of the unit Chimney Flute on both divisions, an independent 4\' Flute in Expression I, and a 16\' Bassoon extension of the 8\' English Horn on both manuals, the latter also available in the Pedal at 16\' and 8\'. In the November revision which is confirmed in a contract addendum signed by President Arthur Hudson Marks, the 5 adjustable pistons on each manual were replaced with seven fixed (and blind) combinations, a 2-rank Cello Celeste is added in Expression II, and the Tierce extension is removed and replaced with a wired up synthetic 8\' Corno d\'Amour, (pipe sources unspecified). The Pedal reed duplex at 16\' and 8\' was omitted in favor of a larger scaled Bourdon/Flute unit replacing the solo 4\' Flute in Expression box I, playable in the Pedal at 16\' and 8\' and in the manuals as the Orchestral Flute 8\' and 4\'. Marks stated this would give a \"bigger foundation under full organ and also make a very useful 8\' Flute stop available in Expression I, also making a more powerful Trumpet voice possible\". The later statement is unclear, whether it meant they would voice the Trumpet louder, or the combination of the fullsome 8\' Flute with Trumpet would make the reed a more commanding solo sonority in roll orchestration. Marks further stroked the customer by opining: \"Certainly you will not miss the adjustable combinations and beyond question the contribution of the bigger Pedal foundation, the Cello Celeste, and the useful 8\' Flute knob in Expression I far outweigh the items they replace. Perhaps this may sound like Greek to you, but a year from now you will be an expert and will realize your organ has been substantially benefited in tonal variety and volume as well as in convenience in semi-automatic playing by these changes.\" There surely would have been a cost impact with these changes, but the confirmation letter is silent on the matter.
Kinzey states this organ was moved to the Kilpatrick farm estate in Litchfield, Connecticut, date or reason unknown. This correspondent played the organ during a wedding there as a teenager in 1968 when the estate was owned by my uncle, Walter S. Mack. The estate has changed ownership at least once since then, and the organ is believed to be still extant, although in neglected and barely functional condition under the current owners.
Perry D. Saylor was the founder and president of the Canada Dry Corporation.
Identified through information adapted from E. M. Skinner/Aeolian-Skinner Opus List, by Sand Lawn and Allen Kinzey (Organ Historical Society, 1997), and included here through the kind permission of Sand Lawn:
With player attachment; moved to Kilpatrick estate, Litchfield, Connecticut.
Webpage Links: Opus 618: Perry D. Saylor Residence
Related Instrument Entries: Skinner Organ Co. (Opus 618)
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