I was waiting for a table at a restaurant in St. Louis, and noticed Rosie there wearing a “E.& G.G. Hook and Hastings” cap. I struck upo a conversation with her and learned a bit about this instrument and she told me about this video. I told her dinner companions that it was about a one-in-a-thousand chance that another customer at a restaurant would recognize what “E. & G.G. Hook” was!
That's an absolute beauty of an instrument. The facade of that instrument reminds me a lot of an organ built that same year by the same builder at Holy Comforter Episcopal Church in Broomfield, Colorado. Which prior to coming to the church in Broomfield was used as a temporary organ at Saint John's Cathedral in Denver when their iconic Kimball organ was being worked on and enlarged. This particular organ in Kansas City I think would be perfect for being featured in Organ Historical Society convention if they ever meet in Kansas City, especially since this organ has quite the story when it was being moved from New York to Kansas.
It does my heart good to see this organ relocated, restored, and being appreciated. I had the joy of helping care for this organ as part of the Andover Organ company working with Bob Newton. I remember the first time I saw it and played it I performed the Buxtehude Prelude Fugue & Chacone. Hook organs, and the organs by William A Johnson where my favorite New England builders. I wish we had more of them out here in the Pacific Northwest. Seattle had several original Hook or Hook & Hastings organs. One 3-manual Hook and Hastings survives at a church in Seattle. And I enjoy caring for a transplanted 1-manual, 11-rank, ca. 1863 Johnson in a private residence near the Canadian border.
The building was made into an art center but the historic restrictions helped kill it- the church pews can be removed from the sanctuary, but they're all in the basement because they can't leave the building
Erastus Corning had no connection to the glass company. He made the bulk of his money in investments, primarily railroads. Long after his death the glass company was founded in a town which happened to be named for Corning.
Jeeze, those heirs sure were entitled brats. The organ would have just sat and rot anyway. If the historic committee of the town was that chaffed about it leaving, they should have preserved the church it was in. Talk about ignorant
The situation of the church is extremely complicated, not helped by location - it's on top of a hillside falling off steeply on three sides- only access is a steep narrow one lane drive and a long stairway from the road. It was physically beyond the older worshipers to get there.
