Brief History of Plymouth's Organ

The current Plymouth Church organ is the culmination of an installation that was begun in 1983 as the Opus 8 of the Hammes-Foxe Organ Company from Butler, WI.  The plan was for a 16 stop, 32 rank instrument, approximately half of which was installed initially at a cost of $80,000.

The remainder of the initial specification was installed (with some adjustments) by the Foley-Biggers Organ Company for $40,000, in time for the 150th anniversary of Plymouth Church in 1991.

The recent update by the Buzard Organ Company from Champaign (IL) was completed in 2018 at a cost of $150,000, including one additional pipe rank, a new blower of double the old capacity, a state-of-the art memory system, extensive mechanical and electrical changes, re-arrangement of the resources for better tuning access, and significant tonal improvements.  All ranks are ‘straight’; there are no borrows with the exception of the 16-8 Violone and the Untersatz derived from the Subbass. The instruments now offers 33 ranks, 31 speaking-stops, and 2 percussions.

The initial installation was dedicated on February 4, 1984, with an all Bach program performed by Roger Sherman, who also designed the instrument.  This pipe organ replaced a 1955 Allen vacuum tube instrument, which in turn had replaced a pipe organ that had been installed with the completion of the current building in 1914.