BEREA, OHIO
Saint Adalbert Catholic Church
66 Adalbert Street
Berea, Ohio 44017

NOTES from Dr. Stephen J. Schnurr

The organ was built by the Votteler-Hettche Organ Company of Cleveland for the
previous church building in 1904 at a cost of $1,500. Manual compass is 61 notes; Pedal
compass is 30 notes (C-F, flat parallel pedalboard). A plate on the organ reads: The
Votteler-Hettche Organ Co./Cleveland, Ohio.

The façade has three flats of pipes: the outer two towers of three pipes each, the center
flat of nine. It is unknown if the instrument was rebuilt from an earlier organ or perhaps
used vintage components. The façade has unused or spare toe-holes at the case impost.
On the interior of the organ, four stenciled pipes were relocated onto the Great chest with
new feet. These pipes would have been used within an original case front and tubed off
its chest. It is unlikely that the current pipe arrangement is that of the original, perhaps
being updated or changed to work with the new architecture of the present church
building.

Likewise, the Pedal rank has only 18 pipes, the top notes being mechanically borrowed
from those an octave lower. It is possible that a larger compass pedalboard dates from
the 1904 work.

The original hand pump slot and indicator remains on the right side of the case, though
the organ is now fed by a blower in an adjacent tower. The original low-rise reservoir is
still in place.

When the organ was visited by the OHS 2009 convention committee in late 2005, it had
started to develop runs in the Great chest. Subsequently, it was overhauled and repaired
by the James Leek Pipe Organ Co. of Oberlin, Ohio, in 2006. Modern telescopic slider
seals were installed beneath the original Great chest toe boards. A plaque on the organ
reads, "James Leek Pipe Organ Co/Oberlin, Ohio/Restoration 2006."