St. Dominic's Church, Roman Catholic
Washington, DC

Roosevelt Opus 290 (1885)
Electrified by Lewis & Hitchcock 1922
Refurbished with new Electro-mechanical action and new console 1985 (1989?)

History and description


The original organ installation must have been breathtakingly beautiful.  Some of the internal pipes which were 
moved still show traces of the stenciling.  The Swell was located above the Great and Choir and the organ towered 
to the ceiling.  I have never seen a photo or any kind of image of the original.

A page from a Roosevelt catalog in the church file shows that the organ was called a Model 55; the organ at the 
Basilica of the Assumption in Baltimore is almost the same, but that organ has been altered much more.  

According to what I've heard, in 1922 the donor of the Rose window behind the organ persuaded the church to move 
the organ around so that the window was again visible.  The Swell and Choir boxes were arranged side by side and 
the facade pipes were altered to the present layout.  The ones in the middle are real pipes but are not winded. 
An electric Spencer blower replaced the original hydraulic blower.  Since I don't know what the original action 
was like I'm not sure exactly what was done at that time.  No changes were made to the specification.

At some point the organ was re-leathered with Perflex and of course that deteriorated.  The organ was unplayable 
for a long time.  The church file shows that the church received proposals for a neo-baroque organ with 
ruckpositiv and an electronic.  I don't have any dates for these.  You can be sure that the priceless Open Wood 
(which takes up as much room as many whole organs) and the full length Trombone would have been removed.

When the Dominican pastor Fr. Haddad decided to have the organ restored in 1989, fortunately there was an 
awareness that the organ had historic value.  According to one person I spoke with, Father was tired of 
getting bills for repairing ventils so he asked for a direct electric action.  I have never met Fr. Haddad 
but he is an organist.  R. A. Daffer is not really an organ builder, which is why I think the database listing 
is misleading.  They mainly do Rogers pipe and electronic organs and the pipework is done by Ruffati.  However, 
their service department is pretty good and they maintain pipe organs in this area -- the manager, Dave Yoder is
 excellent.  I certainly give them credit for not messing up the sound of the organ, or trying to revoice the 
Principal Chorus.  (Another company came by and did a proposal a couple of years ago and of course they wanted 
to revoice the pipes to make them more brilliant.  The Great Open Diapason is huge in scale and in sound.)  

It would be great to have a historian document this organ, since Roosevelts are so rare now.  

Tom Parker

[Received via e-mail October 7, 2008.]