ON HISTORICAL SOCIETY’S STEVENS ORGAN: reviving some old research

At a recent meeting of the Master Planning Steering Committee, we were reviewing a Working Paper prepared by the MPSC’s contractor RKG on the Historical and Cultural Preservation which noted that the Historical Society’s  1870 Stevens & Company organ was the largest remaining single manual organ produced by George Stevens.  Someone questioned that claim thinking that perhaps the Congregational Church’s Stevens organ may be the same size or larger. Actually, according to Phyllis Konop, the Congregational Church organ is a two manual organ. So, the Historical Society’s claim pertaining to single manual organs is correct. The Congregational Church organ is larger but in a different class.

This brought back to mind an article that I wrote for the Historical Society’s ‘Newsletter’ in Fall of 1993 titled “The Baptists of Still River: Their Church and Their Time in Harvard History“, in which I reported on some research that I did on the Society’s Stevens organ.  Here is an excerpt from that article:

“At first, the Meetinghouse had a small organ up in the balconied choir loft. In 1870, William Bowles Willard, Clerk for the Society for 57 years, present­ed to the Baptist Society, a new pipe organ estimated to have cost $1000². The organ was built by George Stevens in his factory on the corner of Fifth and Otis Streets in East Cambridge. Stevens was a conserva­tive Boston organ builder who built one and two “manu­al” ¹ organs for churches through­out the country⁴. The Christ Church in Cambridge purchased an organ from Stevens in 1845 to replace its Snetzler organ that had been damaged during the Revolu­tion­ary War. The thought that George Washing­ton had heard the old Snetzler pipes inspired Stevens to place an occa­sional wood pipe from the old Christ Church organ among the Stopped Diapasons of his later (1850-1880) instru­ments⁷. The Snetzler pipes when installed in Stevens’ organs were suitably in­scribed for posterity. Stevens’ organs were distin­guished in sound and appear­ance as noted by a contempo­rary critic who said that “In purity and richness of tone, as applica­ble to the different stops, or to a great variety of combinations, as well as to the whole power of the instru­ment, this organ is pro­nounced by competent judges to be not inferior to any in this vicini­ty”⁸.

Today, although the Still River Baptist Church organ needs restora­tion, it still plays a beautiful hymn. It is a single manual instru­ment with fifteen stops and an attrac­tive five-section­al Federal pipe case that extends almost 30 feet to the ceiling. The pipe case has a dark mahogany finish and is capped with a fretwork that signals the Victorian era. The instrument was hand-pumped by a dedicat­ed member of the congre­gation whose working place was in a closet off the north front entrance foyer. Aside from being the coldest corner of the church in the winter, the location of the hand pump was some distance from the organist and was such as to require precision coordina­tion between the organist and the pumpman. Indeed, were the pumpman to lapse into some “inatten­tion” at the start of a hymn, the organist would take desperate flight or send a messen­ger to the tiny closet to wake or alert the errant pump­man. The old pump handle is still in place today.

Since the Stevens organ was much larger than the original organ, major alterations were required to accommodate the new organ. The rear of the church was modified to take out the center half of the choir loft and then closed with an oval wall which dramati­cally high­lights the organ pipe case. The two sides of the choir loft and front entrances were closed with flat walls. Today, the choir loft pews may be seen behind this wall in what is now the “attic” at the foot of the belfry. These modifica­tions also required the ceilings to be lowered in the entrance foyers which ob­scures the interior Gothic upper sections of the doors.

With these changes, the choir was brought down to the level of the organ manual at the rear of the Meetinghouse.

Unfortu­nately, with the organ taking up so much room in the center rear of the church, it created a massive obstruc­tion to the great window overlooking the valley. With no recourse, the window was covered and the outside shutters closed. Except for a brief inspection during the 1987 renovation which found the window in good condi­tion, the windows have been kept shuttered for these last 125 years.”

 

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1) The word “manual” is organ terminology for the key­board. So, a single manual organ has one keyboard, a two manual organ has two, etc.

2) Based on a similar organ built by Stevens for the Evangelical Congregational Church in Harvard which cost $1080.

3) As told by Miss Elvira Scorgie to Mr/Mrs J.R.Theriault during a visit at her home in November 1992.

4) Stevens’ organs may be seen and heard today at the First Parish Church of Shirley Center, Evangelical Congregational Church in Harvard, St. Mary’s Church in Boston, First Parish in Belfast, Maine, the Congregational Church in Wiscasset, Maine, and St. Peter’s Church in Gloucester among others.

5) The Ministers: 1778:Dr.Isaiah Parker;1799:George Robin­son;1812:Abisha Samson;1832:John E.Lazell;1833:B.H.Hat­horne; 18­35:Moses Curtis; 1842:Clark Sibley; 1850:Charles M.Wil­lard; 1857:John H.Lerned; 1861:Andrew Dunh; 1863:Leo­nard Tracy; 1869:John H.Lerned; 1870:William Leach; 1871:John W.Dick; 1874:Daniel Round; 1879:William Reed; 1886:James F.Morton; 1888:William H.Evans; 1895:James Brownville; 1896:Everett A.Bowen; 1900:Edgar E.Harris; 1905:Lyman Her­bert Morse; 1919:William Gussman; 1924:Charles L.Pierce; 1925:Mrs. Julia W.Pierce; 1928:George E.Jacques; 1938:Howard P.Davis.(Ref:35)

6) Conversation with Mrs. Phyllis Konop, organist for the Evangeli­cal Congregational Church, and Har­vard music teacher.

7) The Organ in New England, Barbara Owen, pub­lisher un­known.

8) Boston Musical Gazette, June 15, 1849.