Abraham David Ross @North Universalist Chapel 150th Organ Celebration

North Universalist Chapel: 150th Anniversary of the Historic organ

With the current year’s Whitney Organ Recital the North Universalist Chapel Society of

Woodstock celebrates the 150th anniversary of its historic organ with a performance by Abraham David Ross on Sunday October 5 at 4 pm.

This concert is brought to you, FREE TO THE PUBLIC, sponsored by Pentangle Arts.

This recital continues to celebrate the legacy of Samuel Brenton Whitney who lived during his

youth in the Elm Street home just north of the History Center and who was a founder of the still active

American Guild of Organists.

More information about Abraham David Ross and the organs history.

The rediscovery of the Thayer organ by historians Robert Reich, Barbara Owen and Ed A.

Boadway around 1956 created wide interest among organists. As founding members of the Organ

Historical Society, they noted that the organ matched published descriptions of the lost “Thayer Organ”.

The organ was built by the firm of Hutchings and Plaisted in 1875 for the Boston studio of Eugene

Thayer, teacher, composer, and concert organist, Thayer mysteriously sold the organ to a religious society

around 1878 which, again, sold it to the [then] Universalist Church of Woodstock in 1881 through the

efforts of Woodstock born Samuel Brenton Whitney. Whitney, who had become the organist at the Church

of the Advent in Boston, played the dedication recital at Woodstock in April of that year, just one month

after the organ’s installation. Rediscovery led to recording artist E. Power-Biggs featuring this instrument

as one of seven early American organs in a 1959 Columbia vinyl which debuted “Variations on America”

by Charles Ives.

The organ was partially restored in 1969 by Robert Newton of the Andover Organ Company who

made temporary repairs thus saving it from demolition. A national convention of the Organ Historical

Society shortly followed in 1972 prominently featuring the organ. In 2008 Pomfret organ builder A. David

Moore made permanent repairs by replacing the cracked and separated table boards covering the chests

with a flexible local wood called basswood (Tilia americana), just one of many contributions to organ

building by him. Early undated photos of the church interior show a progression of changes made before

the organ was installed in 1881. The original clear glass windows no doubt fascilitated taking interior

photographs but was replaced by stained glass in 1885. So the early photograph with organ was likely

made shortly after installation.