The case which held this organ was very elaborate and the pipes could be seen from the Sanctuary. The frontmost pipes were ornately stenciled, as were those of many Johnson organs. Many of these pipes were moved to the new church building, but are no longer in use on the organ. Several of the largest pipes are in our basement, and one is known to be in the possession of Bon Smith, owner of Austin Organ Service Company in Avon, Connecticut.

By 1960, the congregation had decided to raze the building on Main Street and build a new church building on Western Avenue. Loving the sound of their beloved pipe organ, the congregation decided to take the pipes with them to the new church. They would have new windchests, bellows, and a console built for the new space. In 1962, the pipes were removed, relocated, and revoiced on the new windchests for the current church building by the former Berkshire Organ Company, Inc. of West Springfield, Massachusetts. It is believed that the Spencer blower was also moved. A "floating" Positiv Division was created, separating some ranks (sets of pipes) that were originally part of the Swell Division and adding a couple new voices. The former case was dismembered and along with the console were disposed of. The console that Berkshire installed, along with much of the organ itself, was continuously plagued by various problems. It became evident to the church that Berkshire's work was of substandard quality and had to be dealt with. A new company was contacted.

Austin Organs, Inc. of Hartford, Connecticut began work on the organ in 1972. Although they were asked to bid on the relocation of the organ in 1960, they lost to Berkshire. They installed a new console (present), substantially improved the Great Division by installing a new Austin "universal" windchest, replacing the pipes for the 8' Principal, 4' Octave, 2' Fifteenth, III Mixture, and 8' Bourdon, and re-voiced the pipes for the 8' Dulciana, and the 4' Holz Flute. The re-voiced pipes are believed to be from the original Johnson organ. In addition, they installed the 4' Pedal Choral Bass on the Great windchest. Some of these pipes are also from the Johnson organ. This work cost $18,950.00! What a bargain!

In 1987, Austin Organs, Inc. performed more major repairs to the organ. These included replacing pipes in the Swell Division for the 8' Rohr Flute (4'C up), 8' Trompette, 8' Viola Da Gambe, 8' Viola Celeste, 4' Principal, and the III Plein Jeu and re-voiced the 8' Rohr Flute (#1-#12), 4' Flute Harmonique (rescaled as well), and added the Pedal III Mixture, which is installed on the Great windchest. Again, these re-voiced pipes are from the original Johnson organ. A new Peterson Electronic Relay system was also installed (located in the first floor chamber). The 8' Hautbois in the Swell Division was also keyed to the Positiv Division. Also at this time, the low 12 pipes of the 8' Octave in the Pedal Division were given new life from pipes from the Corpus Christi Catholic Church in Wethersfield, Connecticut. The Catholic church donated these pipes to us which were installed by Austin. For some time afterwards, when Austin went to maintain the organ at the Catholic church, the Priest would ask, "How are our Ecumenical Pipes doing?" The cost for this work was $45,667.00 and was completed on September 22, 1987.

On Sunday, July 20, 2003, at a Special All-Church Meeting, called by the Committee on Finance, the Congregation approved an organ restoration proposal from Messrs. Czelusniak et Dugal, Inc. at the recommendation of the Committee on Music.

On Monday, September 22, 2003, the church signed a contract with Messrs. Czelusniak et Dugal, Inc. of Northampton, Massachusetts for the most recent major rebuilding and restoration of our organ. This project encompassed all divisions of the organ. Many of the parts used in this project were acquired by Messrs. Czelusniak et Dugal through the purchase of Austin Organs Opus #2024 of 1939 (as modified later) from the First Church of Christ, Congregational, Glastonbury, Connecticut. These parts will be referred to here forward as "Glastonbury, CT". In the Great Division, they releathered and physically restored the Great wind regulator, installed a new set of Mayland Chimes consisting of 25 tubes and pitched at A=440.00Hz.

In the Pedal Division, they constructed and installed a new windchest with Austin actions for the Swell/Pedal 16' Lieblich Gedeckt unit notes #1-12, installed a Pedal 16' Contrabass (Glastonbury, CT.), notes #1-15, as a new extension of the Pedal 8-4' Octave, including appropriate rescaling and revoicing in the Pedal 8' Octave. Czelusniak et Dugal also installed passage bridges to protect the wind lines running from the Great windchest to the various pedal chests.

In the Swell Division, they replaced the former Ventil electro-pneumatic windchests with an Austin, electro-pneumatic universal windchest, wind regulator (which replaced the Johnson regulator that was installed on the ceiling of the first floor chamber), and Austin Fan Tremolo, all of which are from the Glastonbury, CT. acquisition. The firm also installed new expression shades and Peterson expression motor and traction, installed a new 8' Trompette rank (Glastonbury, CT.) and installed a new 16' Trompette bass of 12 pipes (A. R. SchoppÕs Sons). (The original Austin Trompette in the Swell was moved and revoiced to the Positiv 8' Trompete), a new 16' Bassoon bass of 12 pipes (Aeolian-Skinner pipes from Glastonbury, CT.) to blend with the 8' Hautbois. The firm also augmented slightly the Swell Mixture.

In the Positiv Division, they installed a new wind regulator, installed a new Inertia tremolo device, rebuilt the former Ventil Electro-pneumatic action windchests as unit electro-pneumatic action and added rebuilt unit-valve windchests for other stops. The ranks of the 8' Gedeckt Pommer, 4' Nachthorn, and the 2' Blockflute were revoiced by Czelusniak et Dugal. The 1 1/3' Larigot (Geisecke) and the 8' Krummhorn (A. R. SchoppÕs Sons) were replaced with new pipework. The Sesquialtera II (Glastonbury, CT.), and the 8' Trompete (revoiced from the Swell rank) were added to the division. With these additions, the Swell 8' Hautbois was no longer keyed to the Positiv. The 8' Gedeckt Pommer, 4' Nachthorn, and the 8' Krummhorn ranks stand upon the rebuilt as unit electro-pneumatic Ventil Electro-pneumatic windchest, the 8' Trompete stands upon the overhauled Berkshire chest that it stood on in the Swell, the II Sesquialtera and the 2' Blockflute stand on the unit electric chest original to the Sesquialtera when it was in Glastonbury, CT. (a 12-note bass chest with Austin actions, recycled from our Swell division, was also added to allow the II Sesquialtera to speak to bottom C. New pipes were added for this bass section). The 1 1/3' Larigot speaks on a rebuilt unit electric chest that is original to the Positiv.

Also included in this project were new wind lines for the Swell and Positiv from the main supply to the regulators, a new digital clock for the console, and reactivation of the Organist Alert Signal. The total cost of this work was $96,600.00 and was completed on November 3, 2005.

In addition to the actual organ improvements, this project also enabled the church to upgrade the AC wiring in the first floor organ chamber, repaint the walls, ceilings, and floors of the Swell and Positiv chambers, installation of new convenience outlets in the Swell and Positiv chambers, and clean the interior screening of the Swell and Positiv chambers.

The Rededication Concert of our organ was given by Mr. Edward Ethan Clark on Sunday, November 6, 2005 at 7:30pm. There was an excellent turnout (over 200 people) and the instrument sent chills up our spines as Mr. Clark performed an extremely moving and memorable recital.

A complete list of our pipe organ stops can be found here.