San Francisco, California
St. Dominic's R. C. 

Woodberry-Estey Organ
[On-line Update from Simon Berry, September, 2005]

The organ, built by Jesse Woodberry in 1909 for a temporary church, was moved to 
the current building in 1928.  The original console was placed in a tower gallery.  
It's an unusual semi-horseshoe console with dual combinations systems.  It is complete 
but no longer connected to the organ.  

In 1928 a second console by Estey was provided in the quire, behind the choir stalls.  
This was a 4 m&p console with stop key controls.  

In the 1950s this was replaced with a traditional stop knob 3m&p console by Moller. 

This was removed in 2000 when a project to rebuild the organ was started.  The project 
was abandoned soon after when the church failed to raise funds and it was discovered 
that the stained glass was in imminent danger of falling from the stone composition mullions.  

In 2005 interest in the organ project is growing again and a reconstruction of the 
Woodberry organ is being carefully examined.  

There are a few important points to consider:  The Woodberry was designed for a temporary 
church, moved to the current site in 1928 and not revoiced for the much larger space.  
The projected solo division (1928) was not added.  The action seems to be of an 
experimental design, using individual pouches per pipe.  These are glued to the upper boards; 
they are amost inaccessible; they are rectangular and so close as to touch neighboring pouches.  
It's pretty clear that the action never worked well.  The only tonal work was the addition of 
a 16' open wood to the pedals department and some minor movement of ranks between departments 
in 1950.  All of the 1909 pipework appears extant in original condition.