In 1950, Walter Blodgett, a longtime organist-choirmaster at St. Paul’s and music curator at the Cleveland Museum of Art, left St. James’ Episcopal (now Anglican Catholic) Church to come to St. Paul’s. He and Walter Holtkamp, Sr. drew the specifications for the present organ, job number 1657, although the church had already been in discussions about the organ from 1949. In a letter to the building committee in August 1949, Holtkamp pleaded for the organ to be front-and-center, not in side chancel chambers. He prevailed, and a contract was signed June 5, 1950, for $39,000 and an Easter 1952 delivery. Blodgett dedicated the organ, assisted by the parish choir and soloists, on December 14, 1952, in a program of Handel, Purcell, Bach, Sowerby, Torres, Roger-Ducasse, Vierne, Langlais and Dupré.
The instrument’s asymmetrical layout culminates Holtkamp’s decades-long experiment with form-follows-function exposed pipework. (“Let there be no impediment to the music”). The balanced, crisp, and articulate layout established a kind of norm, often with subtle variations, throughout the work of Holtkamp’s mature period. The Pedal division is on the far left, the great division in the center, and the positive division is in front of the swell on the far right.
Early on, complaints arose about the “distracting” swell shutters, with the result that a green curtain was hung, remaining until 1966. Today a screen conceals the shutters. The Pedal Posaune was determined to be raucous, and its tongues were replaced in 1960. In recent years, the console has been rebuilt with solid-state switching and combination action, and additional couplers and console features have been included. Otherwise, this Holtkamp landmark, with its core ensembles, remains as the pioneering organ builder’s ear knew it.
Stop List
Great
16’ Quintadena
8’ Principal
8’ Flute
8’ Gedackt
4’ Octave
4’ Spitzflöte
2 2/3’ Quinte
2’ Super Octave
IV Mixture
III Scharf
8’ Trumpet
Great to Great 4 (a)
Swell
Tremolo (a)
8′ Gamba Celeste
8′ Gamba
8’ Rohrflöte
8’ Lieblich Gedackt
4’ Octave Geigen
4’ Bourdon
4’ Aeoline
2’ Flautino
III Dolce Cornet
IV Plein Jeu
16’ Basson
8’ Fagott
4’ Rohr Schalmey
Positiv
8’ Copula
4’ Praestant
4’ Rohrflöte
2 2/3’ Nazard
2’ Doublette
1 3/5’ Tierce
III Fourniture
8’ Cromorne
Gt to Pos Transfer (a)
Pedal
32’ Compton Polyphone (b)
16’ Principal
16’ Quintadena (gt)
16’ Soubasse
8’ Octave
8’ Gedackt
4’ Choralbass
4’ Nachthorn
III Mixture
32’ Cornet V
16’ Cornet V (ext)
16’ Posaune (c)
8’ Trumpet
4’ Schalmey
(a) Added
(b) Disabled and replaced with derived resultant
(c) Tongues replaced in 1960
