Notes on the historic
Hook and Hastings pipe organ

The organ in Pilgrim Congregational Church at Broadway East and East Republican in Seattle, Washington is the oldest organ in the city to have been built for, and installed in, its present location. Built by one of this country's foremost organ builders at the turn of the centry, it has remained intact tonally and is, to this day, a fundamentally sound and indeed glorious instrument. Because it is an old instrument, and also because its last major overhaul (in 1946) was done poorly and in questionable taste, the organ is now in need of attention.

A small group of parishioners began meeting in June of 1987 to discuss the needs of the organ in Pilgrim Church. Since then, this committee has been gathering information, through the assistance of several knowledgeable consultants, in an effort to form a consensus on the value of the organ, its current state of repair, and the possibility of enhancing its sound and, by extension, its value.

Pilgrim's organ was built in 1906 by the Hook and Hastings Company of Boston (Opus 2118). It was placed in an organ/choir loft above the pulpit alcove in front of the church. Its dedication recital was given September 30, 1906 by James Hamilton Howe, Mus.B.

The organ has 27 stops connected to three manuals and pedalboard. The instrument was built with slider chests on a traditional three-manual frame with pedal chests to the sides. Originally the key and stop action was tubular-pneumatic. The console was centered with the organ, about eight feet directly in front of the facade pipes. The wooden casework was minimal, the front consisting of mainly display pipes, most of them speaking. A central flat of 27 pipes (including some dummies) was flanked by two towers of five diapason basses each and two side flats of seven pedal bourdon pipes each. The choir pews were located on either side of the console.

In 1946 the sanctuary was remodeled. The choir gallery in front of the organ was cut away, and the front of the organ was removed. The speaking facade pipes were placed on an offest chest to one side of the organ. The action was electrified, and the console was moved down to a platform on the church floor to one side of the chancel. The organ was walled up above and behind the arched ceiling of the new chancel. Tone openings and grilles in the wall and ceiling allow the organ to be heard in the sanctuary, albeit in a muffled fashion.

The organ work was done by Balcom and Vaughan of Seattle. The console shell and keyboards were left intact, but the traditional stop jambs were replaced by a row of plastic stop tabs above the keyboards. The pneumatic pull-down motors were replaced by electropneumatic pull-down motors. The chests, frame, and winding system, including the reservoir, have not been changed. The side flats of pedal bourdon pipes have remained in place, but most of the case and facade were removed. The swell shades, originally mechanically controlled, now have electric supply house motor action.

On the positive side, the modernization and electrification of the mechanisms have proven their usefulness. Among other effects, these changes freed the console for placement virtually anywhere within the sanctuary. They have not in themselves disturbed the historical integrity of the organ.

On the negative side, some of the alterations were of substandard quality, owing, in part, to a shortage of good materials following World War II. More fundamentally, the decision to construct a false wall in front of the pipes was, in the strong and unanimous opinion of the committee and all consultants, ill-considered and detrimental to both the appearance and the sound of the organ. Fortunately, the negative alterations are not irreversible; the instrument remains tonally intact, and the main problem is one of releasing the pipes from their imprisonment behind the front wall so that they can sing as they were meant to (and, in fact, did before the renovations of 1946).

In addition to the fact that the wall in front of the pipes muffles the sound and distorts its quality as heard from the sanctuary, the architectural changes of 1946 created a serious problem for the maintenance of the instrument. The organ is so tightly enclosed above the arch over the altar that access to the pipes for proper maintenance is difficult, and to the wind reservoir, impossible. Should the leathers of the reservoir wear out (as the inevitably will, and perhaps soon), their replacement on one side could be accomplished only by removing the wall; until this were done, the organ would not be functional. In addition, the enclosed space of the organ chamber traps heat coming in from the sanctuary via the grille system in such a way that certain compartments heat up more quickly than others; as a result, the pipes are thrown out of tune with one another. Consistent tuning, therefore, is impossible.

At the committee's invitation, an acoustical engineer visited Pilgrim Church in September, 1987, to examine the sanctuary for organ sound. In the upper frequency range he estimated that only about ten percent of the organ's sound reaches the sanctuary. At lower frequencies, the effect is about a fifty percent reduction. Removal of the false wall would not only allow the sound to get out but increase the room volume, with positive effect on the overall acoustics of the sanctary.

Since these findings were reported, the committee has made several recommendations regarding the restoration of the pipe organ to something resembling its original state, certainly enough to allow the organ to sound the way its builders intended. To that end, a recital series was begun with the objective of generating enough donations to allow the restoration of the pipe organ.

The organ at Pilgrim Congregational Church is an important and worthy instrument. Regrettably, it has suffered from ill-conceived alteration and years of unintended neglect. A fine organ is a work of art, designed in innumerable details for a specific location; Pilgrim's organ was so designed and so constructed, and it is a great misfortune that the whims of momentary architectural fashion forty-one years ago dictated chages which have undermined the instrument's integrity and created obstacles to its maintenance. A competent restoration would provide the church with an instrument that could serve its current and future liturgical needs, not just adequately but beautifully; it would produce an example of a fine period instrument restored to its original grandeur while at the same time demonstrating its contemporary functionality; restoration would also reestablish the organ as an important artifact of Seattle's history, as well as a noteworthy entry in the world of musical instruments.

If you would like more information on the restoration of this instrument or how to help benefit the restoration, please contact Pilgrim Congregational Church at (206) 324-3900.

If you call outside of regular business hours, please leave a message and someone will gladly return your call.