St. John’s First Episcopal Church, located at 85 E. 100 N. in Logan, now features a newly renovated Aeolian-Skinner Organ console, a prized instrument that once graced New York’s Philharmonic Hall. The organ was played there from 1962 until 1976.
The journey of this historical organ to the 150-year-old church in Logan is a remarkable one. After its time in New York, the organ console was moved to the Crystal Cathedral in California, where it remained for a period.
Edwin Stafford, a professor of business at Utah State University, recognized the significance of the organ’s history.
“This organ was once the ‘house organ’ of the New York Philharmonic under conductors Leonard Bernstein and Pierre Boulez in Philharmonic Hall during the 1960s and ’70s,” Stafford said. “It is featured in at least one famous Leonard Bernstein recording of Gustav Holst’s The Planets and in a 1972 Young Person’s Concert led by Bernstein, which can be viewed on YouTube.”
After several other stops, the console was most recently acquired by dairyman Hal Stoddard of Hooper. He connected it to his personal collection of pipes in a barn he dubbed the “Hoopernacle Organ.” For over 25 years, Stoddard held concerts for local communities.
Having a pipe organ had always been a dream for Stoddard. In the 1980s, he purchased a small, used pipe organ with plans to install it in his garage, but the space was too small for the instrument and its necessary pipes.
“I love playing the organ, and also having others come to see it, hear it, and play it,” Stoddard said on his blog. “My aim through my music is to bring honor and glory to our Heavenly Father and inspire and uplift all whose lives I touch.”
Stoddard gained attention for his unique setup, with newspapers, trade magazines, and television stations covering his magnificent organ housed amidst chickens and cows. He organized Christmas and Halloween programs, invited speakers, and filled the barn with the sounds of the organ.
After Hal Stoddard’s passing in January 2024, his wife Joyce reached out to a local contact, asking if he knew anyone who would want the organ console. If not, they were considering disposing of it.
“She said her son wanted to turn the barn into a workshop,” said Jonathan Rose, who was contacted about the console. “I contacted Father Jason Samuel at St. John’s Episcopal Church and asked if I could bring the console to the church. He gave me the okay, so I brought it to Logan.”
Rose spent 10 months putting the organ back together.
“I just finished it a couple of weeks ago,” Rose said. “It has real ebony and ivory, and due to current laws, I can’t take ivory out of the state.”
Rose explained that most modern organs are made of plastic and do not feature ivory on the stops or keys.
“I had to use an electrical panel to convert the sound to an amplifier because we had no bellows or pipes,” said Rose, a graduate of Utah State University’s organ performance program. “I enjoy this kind of work. It’s like putting together a large jigsaw puzzle.”
The Aeolian-Skinner Organ console is more complex than typical church organs, as it has four keyboards, while most have only two rows.
“I cleaned everything up and painted the organ using Steinway black,” Rose said. “I worked on it while managing my regular job.”
Father Jason Samuel, the church’s leader, admitted he wasn’t prepared for the condition in which the organ arrived.
“Jonathan started unpacking the organ pieces, and straw and hay were all over the place,” Father Samuel said. “It was like wiring a house. He had wires everywhere, but it is a beautiful organ now.”
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