Leone Daniels in front of the old Hook organ.

Wicks organ

Wicks Organ History

New ORGAN

At a special congregational meeting on July 23, 2006, church members voted to purchase a “new” organ.  The organ is a Wicks Organ built in the early 1970s and currently located at St. Elizabeth Seton Church in Bedford, NH.  Greg Martiros, through his business G. Paul Music, sold St. Elizabeth’s a new organ and is making the Wicks Organ available to us.  Our cost for the organ is only $10,000 plus the cost of moving and installation, which may add up to an additional $20,000.  Given that a comparable, new organ would cost about $135,000, this is just an amazing opportunity for our church at $30,000 (or less depending on the actual installation costs).

As discussed at the meeting, the organ itself will be paid for in installments using existing memorial funds and donations.  The installation, which will not take place until at least February 2007, will also be paid for in installments. We expect that we can make those payments from the earnings from our church investment account, rather than taking a large sum of money from the principal or operating budget.

We also discussed the size and appearance of the new organ.  We expect that the pipe cabinet will fit where the current organ is now, and that the console (the keyboards, pedals and bench) will be located on the floor where the piano is now.  However, there are other location or configuration possibilities, so an ad hoc committee of Church Council will be appointed in September to study these and make recommendations about the organ.

This will be an exciting and energizing change for our music program and the church as a whole!  If you have questions or concerns, please contact Dawn Thistle at 508-882-3982.  If you would like to make a special donation to the Oakham Congregational Church Organ Fund, that would be wonderful, too.  

Organ News, October 2006

As the time approaches for the installation of our new organ (probably early February), we are making plans for

1. disassembling the organ at its current site

2. transporting it here to Oakham

3. installing it in our Church

Our organ technician, Stefan Maier, has tentatively planned to take two days to disassemble and transport the organ to Oakham and then about a week for the installation, voicing and tuning. 

The Ad Hoc Organ Committee is exploring ideas for the location of the new organ in the church, but so far opinion seems to be that it should go in the same space as the current organ.  We believe that the pipe case will fit in the existing organ loft, but we will most likely be locating the console (keyboard & pedals) on the floor where the piano is.  We would, of course, move the piano to the other side of the sanctuary

We are also discussing the disposition of the old organ.  Dawn has contacted several organ builders and used church organ sales groups, but there seems to be no interest in our particular organ.  The original organ, the small parlor-sized organ in front of the pipes, may be of interest to someone, so she is still trying to find a home for it. 

The Move

On February 2nd, 2007, a crew of people gathered at St. Elizabeth Seton Church in Bedford, NH to load the pieces of our new organ into Bob LaJoie’s truck for delivery to Oakham.  Our crew consisted of Denis and David delaGorgendiere, Bob, Sam and Eric LaJoie, Andrew Pettyjohn and Dawn Thistle.  We met the organ crew, Doug Feeney, David Schroth and Joe ? there. 

Our greatest challenge was moving the large, heavy pieces like the air chest and the organ console down over the balcony to the ground floor of the church.  Doug had rented a lift—which seemed a little wobbly—to which, when extended all the way up, the guys could strap the larger pieces.  Then, as Joe cranked the lift down, Denis and Bob hung over the balcony to steady it until the piece reached the ground.  At one point, the boys were hanging on to Bob’s belt to keep him from falling!  I wasn’t much help—except to pray that nothing and no one would plunge to the ground from balcony height.

In the picture at left, the guys are just easing the base for the pipes of the “great” (the pipes that will be installed in the front of the organ) over the edge of the balcony. After several hours of work, the pieces were loaded into the truck, and we returned to Oakham—where the unloading went very quickly.  We were all very grateful for our handicapped ramp which enabled us to move everything right into the sanctuary very easily.

Stefan Maier, our organ builder/technician, met with me, Denis and Doug a few days later.  We decided that all the pipes would be able to fit in the organ “loft” and that the console, where Dawn will sit and play, would fit in the choir “loft.”  In fact, Doug has arranged things so that both the choir pews will also fit.  Although there is no exact date by which the organ is scheduled to be ready, I expect that it will be playable in time for Easter!   

We have received some lovely donations for the new organ, but there is still time to give.  Please contact me if you have any questions. All donors will be acknowledged in a plaque to be affixed to the organ case.  Thank you all!  --Dawn Thistle, Organist

We were afraid that our old organ would end up on the wood pile or sold for parts, but amazingly we  found a buyer on e-Bay.  The Freilings will be coming all the way from Orange County, California in mid-January to take the organ apart and truck it home.  Their winning bid on e-Bay was $2729, to be used toward the purchase of the new organ.