Williamson Warne, the company

The pipe organ at the First United Methodist Church started out its life as a Möller organ from 1959. It has limited success because of 2 factors. First off the specification of the organ was to say, quite unusual and very un-orthodox. Secondly, the organ was buried in the side wall of the chancel, and spoke through a very small tone opening. With the abnormal specification it was difficult to not only play the standard organ literature, but was even difficult to play a church service. In the early 1980’s the church, realizing the instrument’s deficiencies, decided to embark on a church renovation programme. The overall scope of the project not only included the renovation of the organ, but a complete remolding of the chancel area. The organ project was entrusted to Williamson-Warne & Associates. The first phase of the project was to renovate the organ’s console, which included all new interior woodwork, all new solid-state equipment, and a movable platform. The following year, the renovation of the organ began. The project included the removal of the organ from it location, complete cleaning of all components, and the complete re-leathering of all of the components. During the renovation of the chancel area, the church not only modified the space in front of the chancel to accommodate the organ, but also completely re-configured the chancel area with new furnishings. A new flooring and frame structure was constructed and installed utilizing the original, but modified shutter frames. The organ was re-configured, and installed in the new case area. A new façade casework was constructed out of American white oak, and finished to match the new chancel furnishings. The new pipe shades were made from pieces of American white oak, and flamed copper rods. The façade included 2 new 8’ Principals (one for the Great, and one for the Pedal) of polished zinc and tin, and an 8’ horizontal trumpet, made from flamed copper. The instrument received tonal regulation to accommodate its new placement within the church.

The organ suffered some damage from the 1994 Northridge earthquake, in the form of some damage to the façade, which was repaired, and some additional structural modifications were made to prevent further damage in the future. Also the main Swell windchest suffered some internal structural damage. The windchest was replaced with a new pitman windchest provided by Williamson-Warne & Associates.

In 2003, a freak electrical surge damage the console’s solid-state equipment rendering it completely useless. There had been some discussion up to this point about the possibility of adding a M.I.D.I. system to the organ, and refinishing the console’s exterior (as the console had been renovated prior to the chancel renovation or the choosing of the new chancel wood finishes). With these combined events, it was decided to again renovate the console. The console’s exterior was stripped and re-finished to match the current chancel furnishings, the interior was modified, rebuilt and re-finished to accommodate the new solid-state equipment including the new M.I.D.I. system. The system included a sequencer to be used as a playback unit, a M.I.D.I. controller to access and activate the internal synthesizers, and a software based sampling package to create and store certain desired voices.