Grace Church Restores 130-Year-Old Pipe Organ

For 130 years Grace Episcopal Church in Medford has been honorably served by its 1885 Hook and Hastings pipe organ. This week, for the first time since its installation, the organ was completely dismantled piece-by-piece and sent to David E. Wallace and Co. organ builders in Gorham, Maine for a complete restoration.

“In 1875 the parish proudly chose a premier company to design and build an instrument for the acoustics of this sanctuary,” said Allison Andrews, the Grace Episcopal Church parish historian.

Over the years, there has been an accumulation of dirt and grime in the organ and it began to have systems fail. The console for playing the organ had become outdated, and was now too difficult to repair. It was time for the organ to have a complete restoration overhaul.

The organ, with its over 700 pipes, was disassembled over three days, with the pipes placed across the pews of the church before they were packed into boxes and loaded into a truck. There were several surprises during the removal, including an old door, which leads to a bricked up wall that had been covered since the organs original installation.

“I am excited to see our parish community’s commitment and love for music and the arts expressed through this organ restoration,” said the Reverend Noah H. Evans, Rector of Grace Episcopal Church. “We have a long heritage of love for singing and music, and having a fully restored and functioning organ will lead us to more fully embrace this passion.”

This organ restoration project is the final project to be paid for by the 2011 Grace Church Capital Campaign along with additional fundraising done recently to help support this effort.

“There’s nothing like a pipe organ — its ability to affect the emotions, allowing the gathered worshippers to step into the living stream of sacred music and actually feel the sound vibrations, whether or not one is a singer, and feel that amazing power of music to inspire and heal,” said Ruth Roper, Minister of Music at Grace Episcopal Church. The organ will return to Grace Episcopal Church in December, to be re-installed over four weeks, just before Christmas.

Grace Episcopal Church in Medford, located at 160 High Street, is a dynamic and vibrant spiritual home to a diverse congregation of over 200 families with different racial, social, ethnic, cultural, family and religious backgrounds. Built in 1867, the Grace Church Sanctuary is on the National Register of Historic Places. Designed by noted architect Henry Hobson Richardson, it is his oldest surviving Church. The chimes in the steeple were raised in 1873, and cast by Blake Brothers Company, successor firm to Paul Revere’s. Between 1882 and 1957, several additions were made to the church building, including the parish hall and education wings.

– Submitted by Grace Episcopal Church