The TVUUC Organ’s History

• PALS (Performing Arts & Lecture Series)
• TVUUC Music Program

In 1891 the Henry Pilcher’s Sons Company of Louisville, Kentucky, built a two-manual pedal tracker organ for the First Baptist Church of Griffin, Georgia. The Pilcher records from that era are incomplete, so we have not been able to establish the original opus number.

Oral history says that the instrument was installed in a rear balcony of that church and that its purchase precipitated a split in the congregation. In 1924, First Baptist Church contracted with Pilcher for a new electric action organ. Pilcher took the tracker in trade. Apparently it went into storage in Louisville.

In 1926 the University of the South at Sewanee, Tennessee, purchased the used tracker from Pilcher for use in their handsome but incomplete All Saints Chapel. The Griffin organ replaced a smaller and older Pilcher already at the university. The organ was installed under the second nave arch on the south side and needed some slight modifications to fit. The swell chest was lowered about 2 feet and moved backwards about 18 inches. Again relying on oral history, the pedal key action may have been changed from tracker to electro-pneumatic; the slider chests were retained. The interior woodwork, chests, frames, swell box, case interior and wooden pipes were all painted yellow ochre. The center section of facade pipes was shortened (by cutting off some of their over-length at the top) and all the facade pipes had their stenciling removed. All the facade pipes were painted gold. No tonal changes seem to have been made.

The organ served at All Saints Chapel until the late 1950s. All Saints was completed at that time and a handsome Casavant organ was installed. Well-meaning, but ill-trained students moved the organ into the university’s new theatre building, Guerry Hall, where a “swallow’s nest” position was prepared for it. No longer free-standing, the case sides were discarded and the case front mutilated to fit around pre-existing balcony rails. The double rise reservoir was cut down to a single rise. The move was not successful and the organ seems never to have played in that location.

About 1994, the local Episcopal church in Sewanee was destroyed by fire. Three ranks from the long-silent Pilcher were give to the church to help replace their organ. Soon thereafter, heeding the advice of a Middle Tennessee organ builder, most of the pipework was removed and plans made to chain-saw out the rest of the instrument. But this time, only the battered and broken facade pipes and the pedal Bourdon remained in the organ.

It was this sad, unloved, and ruined organ that Bradley Rule found in 1996. His trained eyes didn’t see firewood; they saw an instrument awaiting rebirth.

Simultaneously, Tennessee Valley Unitarian Universalist Church was finalizing plans for a new sanctuary. Here was a chance for a church to get a handsome, complete organ for a huge savings over having to buy one completely new. The cost of the reconstructed organ would be $105,000.

The Pilcher chassis and case was removed in May 1997. The instrument was delivered to B. Rule & Company for complete rebuilding and replacement of the missing pipework. The 16-month rebuilding process resulted in a new instrument that utilizes some parts of the 1891 Pilcher but is wholly the work of Bradley Rule as his opus 8.

Every component was cleaned, repaired, restored, or replaced. The windchests were re-tabled with the highest quality bass plywood and hand-planed to a tolerance of three-thousands of an inch. The chests were expanded to accommodate additional stops. The manual keys were covered with bone, rebushed, and balanced. All new trackers were made. The reservoir was returned to double rise. The facade pipes were stenciled using the original patterns (where possible, new designs were added in some areas). New side facades were created to match the front designs using quarter sawn white oak. The key action is light and responsive, the winding steady and plentiful. The pedal keyboard and chests were increased from 27 notes to 30 notes

Crowning the entire project is Bradley Rule’s masterful voicing. Old and new pipes each have been voiced with the utmost care and refinement. Here is an instrument that sings with an easy, full-throated voice that is never strained or strident.

The specifications of the organ are

For more information, you may contact B. Rule & Company at (865) 475-9125

or Tennessee Valley Unitarian Universalist Church at (865) 523-4176