A vintage three-manual Skinner pipe organ for a brand-new building: JL Weiler, Inc. completely restored (right down to the Electric Specialty Co. direct current generator) Skinner Organ Company’s Opus 695 (1928) for a new worship space at St. Mark’s Lutheran Church in Marion, Iowa. The organ was removed from now-closed St. John’s Evangelical Lutheran in the Bronx and taken to our workshop in the South Loop district of Chicago. There were no tonal or mechanical changes apart from a new Skinner-style building frame made necessary by reconfiguration for the new space. The chambers are fronted with scrim so that the interior spaces can be lighted, somewhat dramatically, for special events. The organ was dedicated in November, 2012, by Ken Cowan in two spectacular programs. Demand for tickets was so great that a second performance had to be added. The gracious acoustic for the new building was engineered by Scott Riedel. Photos copyright Wayne G. Anderson, 2013.
