Baltimore, Maryland
Our Lady of Good Counsel Church

Organ by Undocumented Builder (Possibly Roosevelt)

As originally constructed, the organ consisted of 9 ranks (491 pipes). While severely battered over 
the last 110 years, the organ has seen some recent repairs, and, thanks to the wonderful acoustics 
in the church, the organ is still capable of filling the building with authentic late Victorian sounds. 

Sometime after 1939, the organ was “modernized,” in that the purely mechanical connections were all 
replaced with electro-pneumatic works, all connected to a used console. Over the years the console 
has been replaced at least twice, most recently by another used console in about 1990. 

At the time of the “modernization,” the original wind-supply reservoirs was replaced by a single, 
smaller reservoir. As a result, for many years the pipes have played with inadequate, unsteady wind 
pressure. 

In 2001, Philip Janson, a local Baltimore organ technician, replaced all of the console contacts 
(which were pitted and unreliable) and other outdated console switching with solid state components. 
He also began the task of restoring the winding of the organ to a design closer to its original. 
These renovations have greatly improved the organ’s reliability and sound. 

As of 2003 there was additional work needed: the magnet-pulldowns are becoming undependable and the 
“pull-down wires” which control the valves, (and which date from the 1890’s), are rusting through. 
The re-winding project needs to be completed. 

The organ has not been thoroughly cleaned in at least 50 years. The 491 pipes in this historic organ 
have been brutally mangled by a series of service men. The pipes are clogged and lined with loose 
dirt, and some of the pipes have sagged and split, or are otherwise damaged.

[Received on line from John Igoe August 13, 2008]