Inside one of Columbia's pipe lofts.

Columbia High School's Skinner Organ

During the former third of the 20th century, there was no greater builder of pipe organs in the United States than Ernest M. Skinner. His firm, through various incarnations, constructed the most expensive, highest quality, and most famous organs of thier time. With a sound in the style of an orchestra, his work is recognized today as that of a master builder. However, in the middle and latter parts of the last century, orchestral organs fell way out of style. Many of Skinner's greatest works were revoiced, rebuilt, or completely dismantled in favor of an ever increasingly popular "Baroque" sound which listeners today would more closely associate with an organ than they would the symphonic sounds of a Skinner. The destruction of Skinners work has reduced the 1000 or so organs he built down to approximately 80 or 100 today. Any Skinner organ which is untouched, unchanged, or as some would say, unmolested, is a rare and beautiful thing. Interest in Skinner organs today has reached new heights only exceeded by the attention they recieved in thier day. Columbia High School has just such an organ, languishing in moderate disrepair, in the auditorium. Your contribution will help restore this organ to its original splendour.

Skinner produced only a few organs for public schools. Here is what happened to all of them:

PUBLIC SCHOOL SKINNER ORGANS RELOCATED OR DESTROYED:

Opus 249 of Central High School, Washington, D.C. was destroyed by students.
Opus 292 of East Side High School, Cincinnati Ohio was taken apart and sold or thrown out in pieces.
Opus 405 of Cossitt Avenue School, LeGrange, Illinois) was removed in the 1980’s.

PUBLIC SCHOOL SKINNER ORGANS SUBSTANTIALLY DAMAGED OR REVISED:

Opus 218 of McLain High School, Greenfield, Ohio no longer has its original player mechanism, the console was removed and destroyed, severely water damaged, and rebuilt by Peebles-Herzog in 1986 using a Schantz console and considerable tonal changes.
Opus 377 of Schenley High School, Pittsburgh Pennsylvania has lost its original player mechanism and possibly other parts. The Pittsburgh school district plans to close the school.
Opus 378 of Kearny High School, Kearny New Jersey was rebuilt in 1989 by Peragallo. Work involved a major modernization, revoicing, and additional pipework.
Opus 481-A of Hollywood High School, Hollywood California started as 481 in the original school auditorium. A new auditorium was built in the late 1920’s and the instrument was moved (481-A). The instrument was yet again removed from the school auditorium before it too was demolished in the 1950’s. The organ was reinstalled in the third auditorium, but later damaged in the 1994 Earthquake and subsequently flooded. The organ has since been restored after this rough life and three separate homes.

PUBLIC SCHOOL SKINNER ORGANS UNMODIFIED:

Opus 637 of Columbia High School, Maplewood New Jersey.

Despite its unaltered condition, and extreme rarity, Columbia's 3-manual, 27 stop, 24 rank Skinner hasn’t worked in years. The organ was used heavily until the early 60’s, when interest in orchestral organs waned. As a public school with limited resources, the organ was not remodeled into the latest baroque fashion… it was instead just turned off and ignored. About 25 years ago the organ was “rediscovered” and dusted off for use but by 1992 the organ was left to be ignored again as it became unreliable. My curiosity about all things old and mechanical, plus a few years of piano lessons, meant I had to steal the keys and fire it up in 1994. It was one of the few times it has been heard in the last two decades.

The benign neglect has served this instrument well however. A tracery investigation shows only three slight modifications in all those years. Two pipes were relocated slightly in the 1950s to allow speaker to be placed behind the organ screen. A small set of chimes were added in either the 30’s or the 40’s. In the 1980’s a new electrical switch was installed near the console… but other these minor adaptations, this Skinner is all Skinner. The instrument, again with a little rewiring, made some noise just recently!

This image shows Columbia High School around the time it was completed.