Thank you donr. The clarinet is a beautiful solo stop on that instrument. The video does not do that organ or building acoustic justice. I am a stickler for good quality church music and very much a traditionalist with picking of hymns. I don't mind contemporary music but usually RitualSong quality is what I pick from. We do own the Heritage missal but the current OCP stuff is so horrible. I can not wait to work with this instrument for the next two weeks, get it in tune and see what needs to be fixed and start using it regularly!

I will get more pics of it next week to post on here with close details of the instrument but I will post on here some of the history of this instrument. The organ plaque on the console says it was done by Arthur Morressette. But.... after finding the parish history book from 1970 (the 100th anniversary of the church building), the organ goes back way more then the 1930's!

Here is what I know about the history Sacred Heart organ as of right now:

The French came to this area because of the Slater Textile Mills. St. Louis was the first Catholic Church in Webster, dedicated in 1853. By 1869, there were 300 French families in Webster totaling 1700 souls. This is when the meeting was held to form a new Parish. In January 1870, Rev. Jules Cosson became the founding Pastor of the new Parish (S.H.). In 1867, a new (necessarily larger) Methodist Church was built in downtown Webster. In 1870, the French purchased (from Mr. Slater!) the former Methodist Church, which they doubled in size and refurbished. That building served S.H. until 1896 – when they dedicated the present building, on Labor Day, September 7, 1896.

A basic description of the organ is included: “A new organ has been placed in position at a cost of about $2,500. It has proven to be a splendid instrument under skillful fingering of Prof. Boulay, organist and director. It was built by E. B. Brodeur, of St. Hyacinthe, Canada. Prof. Boulay furnished valuable assistance in its design, upon which patents have been applied for.”

Later in the same book, there is an additional description of what (supposedly) happened in 1930, with the organ. It reads as follows:
“In 1929, Msgr. Desrochers purchased the present organ from a company in Canada. A Mr. Arthur Morrissette came to Webster to assemble and install it at a cost of over $10,000.00. It was to be played for the Ordination, in June 1930, of two Parishioners, Father Oliva Gevry and Father Edward Authier.” The case and façade were made for this place, match each other, and are old. Sure, Morressette put a new blower on it in 1930 – too bad we don’t know what the reservoir was, before the ca. 1980 rebuild!

We now know that this Church holds some precious remnants of rare, Canadian organbuilding! What a find!!

Hope you enjoy reading the history of this instrument!!

I will get you the stop list tomorrow!

Andy, I use to cover for you at St. Mary's in Uxbridge a few years ago, haha! I've been at Sacred Heart now four years starting in November. We just had a new pastor assigned to the church last year July. He's been a great addition and really has made the church was it should be. The previous pastor was there 20 years and it was time to move on. Back when the previous pastor was there, I was able to get 300 ritualsong hymnals from a parish in CT and when I asked him if we could get them, his comment to me was "I think they are to big for the pews" That's when I knew he wasn't thinking about the church anymore! I eventually did the get hymnals all for free and saved the church $2,990 and I didn't get a thank you or a hand shake! (not that I was looking for it) It was just the thought of it, you know!! How's things at your parish going??

Hi Everyone,

I want to update everyone on the pipe organ in the loft status.

Two weeks ago, the choir expression engine was removed for restoration. The swell expression engine will be coming out in another week when the choir one is returned to service. The units have been under-performing since the organ was brought back into use and I deemed it a worthwhile project. The choir engine was found to be in quite rough condition. The original rubber cloth on the main pneumatics was patched and covered over with the wonder material known as Naugahyde in the 1982 rebuild. This patch and cover process left the pneumatics stiff and unable to open and close fully or quickly. In the organs second releathering in the 90's to remove perflex form the primary and note pouches applied in '82, the primaries of the engines were recovered haphazardly. Pouches were not centered, valve wire travel was not straight and valve travel overall was far from consistent over the 8 stages. Original gasket material from 1930 was cardboard and had failed in many areas.

The work on the choir engine is nearly completed. Each of the primary pouches was replaced with properly centered new pouches, all valves, valve wires and leather nuts were replaced with new materials to the same specs as the original. All 8 main pneumatics were stripped of Naugahyde, the original rubber cloth and the original gaskets. New rubber cloth matching the original spec was cut and applief with hot hide glue, gaskets were replaced with new leather gaskets. All of the cardboard gaskets for the main unit are being replaced with new packing leather to ensure long term air tightness.

The Swell engine will go through the same process of restoration and be put back into service by August.

Remaining projects for the summer will include installing a tremulant for the choir in place of the missing one, possibly repairing the swell tremulant, exploratory work to determine the extent of repairs needed for the great mixture/trumpet actions/stop channels, and the largest project, rebuilding the pedal bourdon unit chest and repairing/repacking the pipes for it. If time and finances allow, the 16' pedal trumpet will be troubleshooted and repaired.

Very fine instrument indeed! If you don't want the Rodgers anymore, send it to us! We've got a Hammond in our choir loft and a Roland keyboard on the main floor.