Stoneham Town Hall Organ
Stoneham is the only town in America that has a theatre pipe organ in its town hall. The organ is a Unit Orchestra built by Wurlitzer in 1928. Ralph Patch purchased it from WNAC (now WRKO) and donated it to the town in 1942. The organ has almost 1,000 pipes, plus numerous percussions, including cymbals, chimes, xylophone, castanets, car horn, and doorbell.
Of the approximately 10,000 theatre organs ever built, less than 500 still exist. Of these, Stoneham's organ is one of only 49 known to be unmodified from when it was originally built. Massachusetts currently has only 5 theatre organs in public places, such as auditoriums or theatres. Just a hand full of radio station organs still exist.
The American Theatre Organ Society recently designated the Stoneham organ as “musically and historically significant”, only the 55th in the country to be so commemorated. In other words, Stoneham's organ is a unique treasure. It would be a great loss historically and musically if anything were to happen to it.
The Town Organist, an official position in the Town of Stoneham, is tasked with caring for the organ and playing it before town meetings.
The organ is now in the midst of the its first major overhaul. As most of the organ's components are original, over 80 years old, this is long overdue. We are very fortunate to have the services of John Phipps, a retired expert theatre organ technician who is up from Florida temporarily. He used to play our organ when he was a teenager, so for him the work here is a “labor of love”. For the work he has done he has charged less than a fifth of the going rate.
While a lot has been accomplished, much more work remains to be done. Up to $100,000 - $150,000 is needed to restore the organ to excellent condition.
The work that remains is:
1. The relay (the brain of the organ, which takes the signals from the keys and stops and tells which pipes to play) must be replaced. The current one is in such bad condition that it is beyond repair. It is unreliable and its wiring is not up to current electrical code. A new solid state relay would be very expensive to purchase, then require hundreds of hours of labor to wire it up to the organ.
2. Each of the 1,000 pipes has 2 pneumatic valves under it to make it play. The 80-year-old leather in these valves is worn out and must be replaced.
These two problems are the cause of 'dead notes' (pipes that do not play) and will ultimately cause so many that the organ will soon become unplayable. If this work is completed, the organ would then be in excellent condition and should remain so for another 80 years.
The Town of Stoneham does not have the money for organ repairs, so the work is having to be done using donations. Due to the amount of work remaining and the difficulty in getting major donations, this project is unlikely to be completed without a significant grant. It would be a shame to lose this important part of our musical heritage.
Bruce Netten
Town Organist
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