![[Console of the 1918 Steere organ]](images/orgnsteere.gif)
The building of Lawrence Memorial Chapel in 1918 was a joint effort by the college and the local community. During the fund-raising, College Dean William S. Naylor and Conservatory Dean Frederick Vance Evans were able to persuade ten citizens to contribute $1,000 each to buy an organ for the new chapel. The Skinner Company was considered, but the contract went to the Steere Organ Company of Springfield, Massachusetts.
Only about 22 stops were installed on the Steere organ. Many stops and whole divisions were "prepared for" (meaning that all the mechanisms were in place, but no pipes) and were never added. The pipes were installed high in the side walls of the stage, speaking to each other across the stage, and above in the proscenium arch. Photographs show some of the 16' Open Wood Diapason pipes strapped sideways across the ceiling of the stage fly space.
The movable console (keyboard desk) was located on the stage. Its large electric blower, below the stage, would be used for the next 75 years to operate the Steere organ and the two organs that followed it. (The Brombaugh organ, built in 1995, was given a new Dutch blower.)
The chapel stage had curtains in those days, so the sound of the organ was muffled. There was general dissatisfaction with its placement and incompleteness, and, as early as 1928, there was movement to complete it and give it much-needed maintenance. In just ten years its heavy use was comparable to what an average church organ would receive in 40 years.
Stop list for the Steere organ
Return to The History of Lawrence Memorial Chapel Organs