"Church Keys . . . "
Updated: Wednesday, July 20, 2011
The pipe organ in Mayflower Presbyterian is the oldest originally installed pipe organ in Monterey County. The organ is the combination of a 1911 Murray M. Harris organ and California Organ Company (successors to Murray Harris.) The California Organ Company installed the instrument in this building in 1916 with a dedication on September 1, 1916 by the chief organist from Stanford University. The Murray Harris portion is an 18-rank organ from Saint James Episcopal Church in Fresno.
The Mayflower console dates from 1916. The original combination action was preserved inside the console for historic purposes, however a new multi-level solid state combination action was installed in 2010 to bring the organ to modern playing standards.
Click Here, for a comprehensive list of the Mayflower pipe organ resources.
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When completely playable, the front divisions contain 28 ranks and the Echo Organ of 6 ranks. The organ is typical of the period in which it was built--a romantic era instrument of rich foundational tone with not a hint of the neo-baroque fad so prevalent from 1950-1990.
Thomas L. DeLay is the present organist and also is maintaining and rehabilitating this historic instrument.
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Swell chamber of the Mayflower organ. There are 753 pipes in this division and play from the top keyboard (manual) of the organ console. In the large wooden box to the upper right are the 61 pipes of the Vox Humana, "human voice." The flared, spotted metal pipes are of the Oboe in the Swell division.
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These are some of the smallest pipes in the Swell division. These pipes had not played in 60+ years and were restored to playing condition in June 2009. The speaking length of the smallest pipes, near the cell phone, is just 1/4".
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Smallest pipes of the Harmonic Flute. |
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The picture above is the "Great" chamber and plays from the bottom keyboard (manual) of the organ console. A characteristic of Murray M. Harris and California Organ Company organs is that they made their wooden flutes of California redwood. They also made their windchests and wind reservoirs from redwood. The use of redwood for their various flute pipes gives the tonality a mellow sound unlike pipes made from harder wood.
The Great Chamber has 549 pipes plus the 61 unenclosed pipes of the facade. All the pipes in this photo were built in 1916.
The 17 longest pipes in the facade are real. After being disconnected in 1949, these pipes were restored to playing condition early in the summer of 2009. 45 pipes behind the flat of pipes at the top were awaiting to be connected. These pipes, formerly stored in the church basement, are shown in the photo on the right.
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 A portion of the unenclosed facade pipes showing the extension ladder to gain access to 44 the treble pipes.(Click on image for larger view) |
These 1911 Murray Harris pipes are "Unda Maris" (wave of the sea) pipes go with our Dulciana on the Great division (left photo shown in storage in the church basement). Now installed, these pipes will provide a magnificent quiet background sound for communion as well as regular organ accompaniment.
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The Mayflower organ Harp. (Click on image for larger view)
This is the large air reservoir (aka "bellows") for the Swell division of the organ. The Swell division is behind the left side of the gold facade pipes.
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This strange looking device is the "tremolo" for the Swell division. Sometimes called vibrato, when in use, this devices moves up and down rapidly exhausting air to the Swell air reservoir to give the Swell pipes the tremolo effect.
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The 2 horsepower Kinetic pipe organ blower. This unit is located directly below the organ chambers.
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Like the Swell division, the Great division has its own air reservoir. Typical of Murray Harris and California Organ Company instruments, the parts are built of clear California Redwood.
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This is the blower for the Mayflower pipe organ. The Kinetic Blower Company built its blowers with wood cabinets rather than metal as with the Spencer Blower Co. The Echo organ will have a small Spencer blower when it is installed.
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