Maryville College, Maryville, TN.
Samuel T. Wilson Chapel

1957, Holtkamp Organ Co., Opus 1673

NOTES

This organ began life as M.P. Möller's Opus 908 built ca. 1910 for First
Unitarian Church in Cleveland, OH.  That church was supposed to have gotten a
new Holtkamp - Opus 1590, 1935.  Instead, Holtkamp rebuilt the organ in 1943
during WWII as his opus 1619.

The chests were all new in 1943.  The manual chests were slider chests with a
very peculiar design.  Notes 1-12 were on a diatonic "A" chest, and notes
21-61 were on a second diatonic "M" chest.  In addition, each diatonic half
had its own E-P slider motor...so every manual stop had 4 E-P slider motors to
enable the pipes.  The Pedal chest holding the 8' Flauto Dolce, 5-1/3' Quinte,
4' Choralbass, 2' Octave, & II Rauschquinte was a pitman chest.  The 16'
Quintadena, 16'/8' Posaune/Trumpet, and 4' Schalmey were on unit chests.  And
the 16' Sub Bass chest appears to have been the original Möller rebuilt.

Because of is reconstruction during the Second World War and because of
related restrictions on tin...all of the 1943 pipework is linen-cast lead.  It
is clearly newer pipework when compared to the extant Möller ranks.  But the
absence of spotted metal pipework seems strange.  It is this author's guess
that perhaps some of the old Möller pipework was melted-down and recast.  The
only spotted metal in the organ was that which had been retained from the
original Möller.

The organ was installed in Wilson Chapel at Maryville College in 1957. Tonal
changes were made prior to its reinstallation. The former 16' Contrabass
(probably the original Möller 16' Double Open Diapason) was omitted in favor
of an over-length 10-2/3' Gross Quinte. The Pedal Mixture had formerly been a
II Terzian [10-12]. It was recomposed as the II Rauschquinte [12-15]. The
Great 8' Cromorne was relocated to the Swell.  It replaced the Swell 8' Fagott
which seems to have been abandoned altogether. The Great got a new 8' Trumpet,
though this may have been the former original independent Pedal 8' Trumpet
filled-out to full-compass.  The various mixtures were swapped between
divisions and recomposed.

It was installed in the front, left corner of the chapel inside a steel I-beam
"cage" covered in grillcloth panels.  The only visible pipework was the new,
over-length 10-2/3' Gross Quinte and the Pedal 8' Octave - which appears to
have perhaps also been new in 1957. These two ranks wrapped around the
auditorium and stage sides of the chamber cage. the Positiv was the lowest
level with the Great partly hanging over it.  The Swell was also elevated with
the shutters opening onto the stage side. The Pedal pitman chest was in front
of and just below the shutter opening.  And the Sub Bass, Quintadena, and
Posaune were along the outside, side wall.

In 2007, the College embarked on an ambitious program to build a new community
Fine Arts Center. The City of Maryville, Blount County, and other agencies are
also contributing to this project.  The City of Alcoa - originally supporting
the project - withdrew its financial support.  The Wilson Chapel/Theatre
complex housing this organ and with Little Chapel 1967, 2/4 Schantz; and the
Fine Arts Center were all demolished in August.  The organs were removed by
College alumnus James R. Stettner between July 15 and August 15, and are
stored in on-campus facilities.

This Wilson Chapel organ will not be reinstalled in 2009, and is presently for
sale.  Several inquiries are pending at this time.


James R. Stettner, October 23, 2007