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Lynn Dobson retires

Lynn Dobson and John Panning

In 2012, Lynn Dobson and John Panning set in motion a business continuation plan to provide for the future of Dobson Pipe Organ Builders, Ltd., Lake City, Iowa, upon Dobson’s retirement. On February 15, Dobson retired from full-time employment, and Panning become the company’s owner and president. Dobson will continue to work with the company and clients on the visual design of new organs, and he will remain involved in projects currently under construction.

Dobson is acclaimed as one of the most gifted case designers of his generation, producing architecturally-sensitive designs that run the gamut from Gothic to contemporary. In his 45 years as president and artistic director, the company has been commissioned to build landmark instruments for Los Angeles’s Cathedral of Our Lady of the Angels, Philadelphia’s Verizon Hall, Merton College in Oxford, U.K., and Saint Thomas Church Fifth Avenue in New York, as well as more modest instruments found across the country.

The Dobson company was formed in 1974, and Panning has worked with the firm since 1984. Dobson Pipe Organ Builders is currently building its Opus 97, a three-manual instrument of 51 ranks for the University of Dubuque, which will be installed in May. A two-manual organ of 32 ranks for Saint Christopher’s Church in Chatham, Massachusetts, follows, then a four-manual, 51-rank instrument for Saint James’s Church in Sydney, Australia, the oldest building in that city’s historic center. The company maintains 120 organs in the upper Midwest and has two restoration projects upcoming, both unaltered mechanical-action organs: the 1892 J. W. Steere & Sons organ in First Baptist Church, Owatonna, Minnesota, and an early Lyon & Healy instrument, Opus 34 from 1899, at the Church of St. John the Evangelist in Independence, Iowa.

For information: www.dobsonorgan.com.

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In the Wind: from Nelson Barden to Dobson Pipe Organ Builders

John Bishop
People who assisted loading the truck to Iowa

A restoration story

A couple months ago, I wrote in these pages about Fritz Noack, the pioneering builder of mechanical-action pipe organs who learned the trade working for great European firms and came to the United States to build more than 160 organs (see August 2021 issue, pages 14–15). Fritz passed away on June 2 at the age of 86, and I recounted his career in the context of the frenzy of mechanical-action organs, especially as it was centered in the Boston area. At the same time Noack and others were getting started, Nelson Barden was focusing on the restoration of early twentieth-century electro-pneumatic-action organs, the very instruments so many churches were suddenly overly eager to replace.

Nelson was born in 1934 and apprenticed with Roy Carlson of Magnolia, Massachusetts, beginning in 1955, two years before E. Power Biggs brought the iconic Flentrop organ to the Busch-Reisinger Museum (now known as Busch Hall) at Harvard University. Carlson maintained many of the prominent organs in Boston including those in Symphony Hall, First Church, Old South Church, and Second Church (now Ruggles Baptist Church). Early in his time with Carlson, the combination action of a new organ in a junior college auditorium failed just weeks after the dedication concert. The builder of the organ could not solve the problem, and the organist called Roy who in turn sent Nelson to investigate. He noticed that the power-supply feed wires of the combination action were of different colors than those for the organ, and after scouring the building, “discovered” an independent twenty-four-volt generator that powered the combination action. It was turned off. He turned it on. Voilà!

Nelson was quickly recognized as a wunderkind whose aptitude and musical ear equipped him to solve bewildering mechanical glitches, set excellent temperaments, and tune large organs for the most discriminating organists. Those organists began engaging him personally for their maintenance programs, and by the time he was twenty-five years old he was supporting himself with eighteen tuning and maintenance contracts in the Boston area.

The Aeolian-Skinner Organ Company was prominent in Boston and typically restored their own instruments. Second Church in Boston had a forty-five-rank Skinner organ “down front” (Opus 226) and an eighty-three-stop organ by Möller in a rear gallery (Opus 3903), all played from a console located on the floor in front of the congregation, and the organist wished to have the console moved to the gallery. Aeolian-Skinner chose not to bid on the complex project involving a large organ by another builder, and Nelson Barden made what he considered to be a high bid and was awarded the contract. The organist left the church a few years later, and his successor insisted that the console should be moved back to its original location. This time Nelson knew just what the project would cost and accomplished the work with a larger profit margin.

After working from the basement of a friend’s apartment in Brookline, Massachusetts, Nelson found space in the former Chickering Piano Factory in Dorchester, knowing he would have to work hard to meet the $140 monthly rent. By 1963, he had seventy-eight maintenance contracts. When that number had grown to 107 by 1971, he decided to scale back and focus specifically on restoration.

Counterculture

Nelson was establishing his restoration business in the midst of the tracker-action frenzy. Companies like C. B. Fisk, Inc., Noack Organ Company, and Andover Organ Company were producing dozens of new instruments. Nelson told me simply that he was not moved by tracker-action organs, preferring to work on the “gorgeous” electro-pneumatic-action organs
of the early twentieth century, especially those built by Ernest Skinner and the Skinner Organ Company. He gained a deep respect for the innovations that allowed pneumatic actions to work so reliably and sensitively, and developed techniques expressly for this unique work, setting the standards for generations of restorers of pipe organs.

Nelson maintained the fleet of organs owned by Boston University, so naturally he was summoned when John Robinson, secretary of the university’s board of trustees, wished to remove the Skinner organ from his home in Greenwich, Connecticut. A quick inspection of the organ revealed that sewage pipes running through the ceiling of the basement organ chamber had leaked for decades, and he recommended that it would not be practical to restore the badly damaged organ. Mr. Robinson had other ideas. The organ would be restored to museum-quality condition and donated to the university.

BU president John Silber and chairman of the board of trustees Arthur Metcalf came to visit the organ. When Metcalf saw the two-manual Skinner console, he announced, “The organ in my house has three keyboards.” Nelson asked, “Dr. Metcalf, where do you live?” The next day, Nelson and his assistants arrived at Metcalf’s residence in Winchester, Massachusetts, which was originally built for William E. Schrafft, Boston’s “Candy King,” who equipped it with an Aeolian organ.

Dr. Metcalf pressed his hands together and dramatically announced, “I think they should get married,” and the concept of the Boston University Symphonic Organ was born. Nelson Barden & Associates was appointed restorers-in-residence at the university and situated in a fully equipped restoration studio in the Fuller Building on Commonwealth Avenue, built for the Peter Fuller Cadillac-Oldsmobile automobile dealership. It was a blast to drive up the interior circular ramp to Nelson’s fourth-floor studio.

Nelson Barden & Associates worked for more than fifteen years combining the two organs, adding several others, and expanding the instrument to 107 ranks with additional stops and many percussions. Nelson collaborated with his associate Sean O’Donnell, mathematics professor John Irwin, and Roy Battelle to create a sophisticated digital player with advanced editing capabilities, allowing the fragile paper rolls to be transferred to digital files. The organ could be played from both Skinner and Aeolian roll players, the digital system, and from a four-manual Skinner console. It was ultimately installed in Metcalf Hall of the George Sherman Union on the university’s campus, where it was dedicated in honor of president John R. Silber and has been heard by thousands of students and visitors.

The Boston University Symphonic Organ stands as an eloquent example of the art of restoring electro-pneumatic-action pipe organs. Part of Nelson’s vision was that the appearance of a restored organ was important to the overall artistic effect, and along with new techniques for the accurate and intricate restoration of leathered actions, he developed methods for the restoration of the finish on organ pipes, windchests, and all other components of the instrument. Even the screws and hardware were run through bead-blaster cleaning machines to remove rust, adding to the “like new” appearance of the organ. The BU organ is thirty feet tall and one hundred feet wide. Most of the organ is enclosed behind a dazzling array of expression shutters. Visitors walk on parquet floors behind the two stories of chambers. Sliding glass doors allow viewing of each chamber, and polished brass handrails complete the effect. Walking through the organ while it is playing a complex orchestral score is a dizzying experience. You can see photos and read a marvelous essay about the organ written by Jonathan Ambrosino at http://www.nbarden.com/gfx/BUSO-History.pdf.

Nelson Barden & Associates is also well-known for having restored the 113-rank Skinner organ at Old South Church in Boston, and for the creation of the recently completed “Skinner” organ with over 125 ranks for the Church of the Transfiguration at the Community of Jesus in Orleans, Massachusetts, a new installation made up primarily of combined and restored Skinner organs and components.

Passing the baton

When the BU organ was completed and the university needed the studio space in the Fuller Building, Nelson Barden & Associates moved to a workshop space in Waltham, Massachusetts. Having passed his eighty-seventh birthday this summer, Nelson was planning his retirement, aware that he would have to find new homes for the vast collection of wood and metal working machines, hand tools, and other equipment he had accumulated over his long career. He the told me, “I prayed to Saint Cecilia.”

On June 15, news broke of a devastating fire destroying the workshop of Dobson Pipe Organ Builders in Lake City, Iowa. At the time of the fire, Dobson was about a third of the way through the construction of their ninety-ninth organ, a large, new four-manual instrument for Saint James’s Church, King Street, in Sydney, Australia. It was to include a Vox Humana made by the Skinner Organ Company they had purchased from Nelson’s associate Peter Rudewicz, and immediately after the fire, Dobson president John Panning called Peter to ask if a replacement rank was available. There was, and it was soon apparent that one company was eager to sell its equipment and the other was in immediate need of it.

An agreement was quickly reached, and arrangements made to pack and ship the entire contents of Nelson’s workshop to Dobson. The Organ Clearing House helped with the packing and chartered a semi-trailer that turned out to be driven by Bob Mead, one of our regulars. This was the fourth load Bob had hauled for OCH in 2021, and he delivered it to Dobson’s temporary workshop on August 2. It seems a miracle that all that well-seasoned organ building equipment will continue to sing together in the same choir, helping to build organs for the next generation.

It’s all art

I visited Nelson Barden’s workshops many times over the years, both in the Fuller Building and in Waltham. During the restoration of the BU organ, Nelson developed a theatrical lecture presentation of the work they were doing that he first shared with the BU board of trustees. He generously presented it for the staff of my Bishop Organ Company in the late 1980s and famously ran it six times for the national convention of the American Guild of Organists in 1990, and I know that countless others were treated to this show, gaining a higher understanding of the art of the organ and the art of organ restoration. The fastidious details of Nelson’s methods have been applied to the restoration of historic mechanical-action organs, pianos, harpsichords, and many other facets of the world of historical restoration. His career has influenced the preservation of many electro-pneumatic-action instruments that might otherwise have been replaced with new tracker organs.

I believe that the revival of building organs in classical styles has led us all to a higher understanding of the art through the limitless study and experimentation that went into recreating ancient methods. The concurrence of reconstruction of old methods of organ building with the development of new techniques of organ restoration means that the entire art of the organ has been elevated. Today, organ builders in the United States and Europe are building and restoring high quality organs of all types and descriptions.

The evolution of the pneumatic-action and electro-pneumatic-action organ to include expression enclosures and a dizzying array of registration devices invented by such geniuses as Aristide Cavaillé-Coll, Henry Willis, and Ernest Skinner did not sully the reputation or effectiveness of the classic beauties of Arp Schnitger and Elias and George Hook, but added to the breadth and depth of the art. As Silbermann and Hildebrandt organs inspired Bach, so Cavaillé-Coll organs inspired Franck, Vierne, Widor, Dupré, and a host of other great musicians. Ernest Skinner changed the landscape forever with his colorful tonal innovations, elegant consoles, and the spectacular design of the pitman windchest that sports the fastest and quietest stop action of any pipe organ—even a careless user cannot make it noisier. The vast repertory of music for the organ from Scheidt and Sweelinck through Demessieux and George Baker is only possible because of the huge variety that is the world of the pipe organ.

I am often asked what is my favorite organ, a question I find impossible to answer. I might say it is the last organ I heard, but that one might have been a stinker—there is such a thing. There are some iconic “best in the world” organs, and those I have played are worthy of the distinction. I love any beautiful instrument that has been well maintained and loved by the people that own and play it. I love any organ that has been the center of the life of a congregation through generations of festivals, marriages, and funerals. I love a great new organ that is being heard for the first time for the daring and skill of those who made it, paid for it, and prepared a good home for it. I love a beautiful, intimate instrument in a distant local church, and I love a majestic behemoth in a great cathedral or concert hall. I love an organ carefully restored with constant attention to the intentions of the original builder, and I love the first third of the Dobson organ destroyed in the June fire. What matters is that an organ is built with care and integrity, that it is designed with intent and purpose, and that it is faithful to the six-hundred-year legacy of the instrument.

Nelson Barden & Associates and Dobson Pipe Organ Builders are two companies within the same industry with radically different philosophies, methods, and practices. The fact that Nelson’s tools and equipment would be useful to Dobson shows that whether you are restoring a Skinner organ or building a grand new instrument, it is simply all about organs. Both companies devote huge amounts of time and energy to achieving the highest results. Both have raised the standards, inspiring firms across the country with the depth of their work. As Nelson retires from his career and Dobson rebuilds after its fire, the legacy of American organ building flourishes.

Inspiration

In the 1980s and 1990s, I was a newly independent organ guy in the Boston area. I was lucky to work on some of the great organs there and to have contact with some of the “old timers” who had worked with Mr. Skinner. They referred to him formally and with reverence as they came from a time when a young employee would not dream of addressing his boss as “Ernest.” They were in their eighties when I was in my forties. Nelson is of the generation in between. He is a marvelous teacher—there’s a troupe of fine organ craftspeople who got their start in his shop—and he was generous to me with advice and suggestions as I learned my way. After I joined the Organ Clearing House, I collaborated often with Nelson, especially as he sent us across the country to “harvest” the Skinner organs destined to become part of the great instrument at the Community of Jesus.

Helping to move Nelson’s equipment to Iowa has given me a chance to reflect on his contribution to our art. I admire his contrariness, insisting that fine electro-pneumatic-action organs were worth restoring as so many of his contemporaries were newly excited about tracker organs. He helped get us to this place of excellence in every style of organ, and Saint Cecilia was paying attention.

Memories of Charles Hendrickson

David Engen

David Engen holds degrees in organ from St. Olaf College and the University of Iowa, and a master’s degree in software engineering from the University of St. Thomas. He has been in the organ business since 1970. He is currently president of Grandall & Engen, LLC, in Minneapolis where he shares duties with vice-president David Grandall.

Charles Hendrickson and his Opus 45, First Lutheran Church, Saint Peter, Minnesota (photo credit: Kris Kathmann/Connect Business Magazine)

Editor’s note: many of the organs mentioned in this article can be found with stoplists and pictures at the website of the Twin Cities Chapter of the American Guild of Organists.

Charles George Hendrickson, 85, died at his home in Saint Peter, Minnesota, on December 17, 2020. He was born June 10, 1935, in Willmar, Minnesota, to Roy and Frances (Eklund) Hendrickson. Roy Hendrickson was an attorney and member of the board of directors at Gustavus Adolphus College in Saint Peter, from which Charles graduated in 1957. His intent was to continue in nuclear physics, but he once admitted to me that during his time of graduate study at the University of Minnesota, aspects of nuclear physics were “beyond me.” He taught physics at the University of Wisconsin-Superior, Union University in Jackson, Tennessee, and Northeast State University, Tahlequah, Oklahoma.

I believe it was after his father’s death that his mother became secretary to the president of Gustavus Adolphus. It was she who introduced Charles to the woman he would marry, Birgitta Gillberg, a language teacher at Gustavus Adolphus and later at nearby Mankato State University. He taught physics at Mankato State, and he and Birgitta were married in Sweden in 1964. They had two sons: Eric and Andreas. Birgitta preceded him in death by two years.

In 1964 he started building his first organ in rented space in an old canning plant in Winthrop, an instrument for nearby First Lutheran Church. The three-manual organ of thirty-four ranks, which has since been enlarged, had the first Rückpositiv division in Minnesota. David N. Johnson, then of Saint Olaf College, played the dedication recital.

Philosophy

I first met Charles at about the time the Winthrop organ was completed in 1966. He was measuring pipes in the new Holtkamp organ (Job Number 1778) at my home church in Minneapolis, Westwood Lutheran Church, Saint Louis Park. He told me of the upcoming David Johnson recital at Winthrop, which I attended. I started working for him in 1970 and continued for much of the time until 1984.

Charles was a fan of the architect Mies van der Rohe and ascribed to his “less is more” philosophy (although in the shop we often changed it to “more is more”). Most of his designs with casework are simple boxes. He also much admired the work of the organbuilder Robert Noehren, whose unit organs on all-electric action were a big influence.

More than one hundred organs came from the Hendrickson shop, ranging in size from a one-stop, one-rank portable “organetto” (Opus 19) to his “magnum” Opus 92 of four manuals and seventy ranks for Wayzata Community Church in Wayzata, Minnesota. Most of his organs were built for churches, but many were built for colleges (both concert halls and practice rooms), and several were built for individuals. There was a series of three three-stop portativ organs built for touring groups, the first for the Saint Olaf Choir, designed to fit through the door of a Greyhound bus.

Many organs had mechanical action, and in general the smaller organs were unit organs on all-electric action. These followed the Noehren philosophy of unification, where octave unification was avoided if possible.

One of Charles’s notable innovations was the use of plywood Subbass pipes. Built in the shop, they were made of three-quarter-inch plywood. In the ravages of Minnesota’s wild seasonal humidity swings, almost every old organ we encountered had splits in the big pedal pipes. Plywood avoids this, and these pipes were used in virtually every organ. He also exclusively used aluminum for the façade pipes above 4′, made by Justin Matters of South Dakota.

Another unique feature of the small unit organs has to do with celeste and tierce stops. In a very small organ it is difficult to justify the expense of either of these. Both are typically the softest stops, and both can be either string or flute scale. We found that if the tierce is borrowed from the celeste (tuned flat instead of sharp), you can have both in a single stop by adding just a few more pipes. One tunes the tierce perfectly from middle C up, then tunes from there down for a pleasant flat celeste (beats tend to get too wild in that range if tuned to the perfect tierce). It is an inexpensive compromise that is of great benefit to a tiny organ.

Friends and collaborations

Some of the best organs to come from the shop during my time were designed in conjunction with friends who acted as consultants. Among those were Merrill N. (“Jeff”) Davis, III, of Rochester, Minnesota, and William B. Kuhlman of Luther College, Decorah, Iowa.

Both pushed Charles to some of his most inspired designs, visually and tonally. Opus 4 was a pair of positiv divisions added to a Wicks organ in memory of Jeff Davis’s first wife at the Congregational Church in LaCrosse, Wisconsin. In an acoustically dry room, these positivs pulled the sound of the enclosed Wicks into the church. This was but the first collaboration. Many other projects resulted in very unique and unusual instruments over the years.

Bill Kuhlman was behind what was to become the first mechanical-action organ constructed in Minnesota in the late twentieth century. This was a thirty-six-rank teaching organ for Luther College (Opus 10) in Decorah, Iowa. As a successful teacher, Bill had many students study on that organ who went on to careers in music.

Other consultants included Robert Kendall and Robert Thompson of Saint Olaf College and Kim Kasling, then of Mankato State University.

Significant instruments

I had personal experience and/or input in almost all of the organs from Opus 1 through Opus 70, and it would be tempting to tell stories of each one. Except for the three portativs, no two were alike. (Fritz Noack once told me that when you mass-produce organs, you have an opportunity to replicate your mistakes!)

One overriding memory I have is that every time we built a mechanical-action organ, the shop looked forward to building electric action. When we were lost in the wiring of electric-action instruments, we would long to build another tracker.

Luther College, Decorah, Iowa, Opus 10, two manuals, 36 ranks

After the Winthrop organ had launched the company (we cleaned and added to it some years later after a Christmas Eve fire), all organs through Opus 9 were built in the Hendrickson garage and backyard. Starting with the Luther College organ (Opus 10) the operation moved to the current shop location at the north end of Saint Peter in an industrial park. The shop was built during the winter of 1970–1971. During the first rainstorm in 1971 the skylights leaked, and several of us frantically covered the Luther windchests in the middle of the night to prevent damage.

There was a lot of overcompensation in design. The pallets were large, we had complex bleed holes in the channels, and we used foam slider seals. Having a heavy coupled action, it had optional electric couplers. The horizontal trumpet was on electric action and played at 16′, 8′, and 4′ on the Great and at 8′, 4′, and 2′ on the Pedal to create maximum “blast.” There were prepared stops in each division. Perhaps the most unusual feature was that the whole organ could be moved around Koren Chapel at Luther with an air flotation system by one person! Gerald Near wrote his Second Fantasy for the dedication concert.

Jensen-Noble Hall of Music was opened in late 1982 on the Luther campus, so the Hendrickson company was engaged to move the organ into a teaching studio in the spring and summer prior to the opening. Being the only employee left who had helped build it, I wound up in charge of disassembly and reinstallation. We were able to take what we had learned from building about a dozen tracker organs in the intervening years and apply those lessons to what became a successful renovation. Since there was no need for the flotation system in a studio, we removed it and built a new and more reliable pedal action in that space. Pallet openings and pallets were reduced in size, resulting in a lighter action that no longer needed electric couplers. The blast from the horizontal trumpet at multiple pitches was not needed in the smaller space, so the trumpet was placed on mechanical action and lower wind pressure, speaking from the Great channels. Three of the five prepared stops were added. It continues to function, fifty years after construction, as a teaching and practice organ under Bill Kuhlman’s successor, Gregory Peterson.

Saint John Lutheran Church, Owatonna, Minnesota, Opus 34, three manuals, 51 ranks

Saint John Lutheran Church is a huge A-frame building, but the typical front transepts are in the back balcony. Floor to ceiling windows in the balcony provide wonderful light, but the acoustic issues for a gallery organ are significant since glass does not reflect bass. Charles’s solution was to cantilever the main organ as far into the room as possible and to provide a very large Rückpositiv as well as a prominent horizontal trumpet.

Since there was virtually no unification on the manuals, I talked Charles into building slider windchests. We opted to try the Holtkamp slider chest design with all-electric magnets on the channels rather than pallets with pull-downs. Forty-five years later the organ continues to serve the church—as does Shirley Erickson, who was organist when the organ was installed!

Saints Peter and Paul Catholic Church, Mankato, Minnesota, Opus 35, three manuals, 59 ranks

Following right behind the 51-rank Owatonna organ, we tackled what would briefly become the largest mechanical-action organ in Minnesota. (The Fisk organ at House of Hope Presbyterian Church, Saint Paul, followed very soon thereafter.) Kim Kasling was consultant, and Jim Dorn was organist. An original plan for a high, stacked organ in the right front of the nave eventually became a balcony installation. Again, a large Rückpositiv was in the design, but the ancient church balcony could not hold its weight if placed in the normal location on the rail. It sits instead on the floor, right behind the keydesk, with new steel beams under the floor to hold the weight.

A huge Great division with two mixtures sits above a relatively small Swell, with Pedal split and across the back inside the organ. There are many pipes from the previous organ spread throughout, as well as a 32′ Bourdon from the old Soul’s Harbor organ in Minneapolis and a 16′ open wood diapason discarded from the Sipe rebuild of the organ at Christ United Methodist Church in Rochester, Minnesota. The church interior has been tastefully remodeled since the organ went in, and there is now less carpet than there had been.

First Lutheran Church, Saint Peter, Minnesota, Opus 45, two manuals (with a third coupler manual), 44 ranks

First Lutheran Church in Saint Peter was the Hendrickson family church. Founded in 1857 by Swedish immigrants, 164 years later it retains its Swedish roots, although services have been held in English for 100 years. It has always been closely connected with Gustavus Adolphus College, which is just a mile away. On Mother’s Day, May 13, 1962, the old church was struck by lightning and burned to the ground. Charles was already involved in organ renovations, and there was an existing organ fund.

The firm of Harold Spitznagel and Associates of Sioux Falls, South Dakota, designed the new church to replace the old one on land purchased on the edge of town. The first service was held in the new edifice on September 5, 1965. The sanctuary was half a cube, 76 feet on each side and 40 feet high topped with clerestory windows. The congregation did not want to suffer another fire, so this building is made of concrete and brick. As a result, the sanctuary has incredible acoustics for music.

To avoid having a temporary electronic organ, Charles assembled parts he had on hand into an eight-rank exposed organ that he leased temporarily to the church. The four-second reverberation made this mongrel organ surprisingly successful. It was later rebuilt for another institution.

In 1975 plans began in earnest for a new organ. The original concept had four manuals with a Rückpositiv division. Fundraising and unrelated issues delayed the project, and in a period of high inflation the organ shrank by the month. We finally decided to start over and took the tonal design of the Luther College organ as a starting point. The entire Luther organ can be found within the specification of the First Lutheran organ. One major difference is inclusion of a coupler manual.

This became the flagship demonstration organ for the company, being located just a mile from the shop and in a room with incredible acoustics. What many do not realize is that the asymmetrical design of the organ case is inspired by the brick sculpture on the front wall of the church (the story of Creation). The pipe shades are inspired by the bird figures in that sculpture. The asymmetrical “Family of Man” and the birds are at the top.

Saint Wenceslaus Catholic Church, New Prague, Minnesota, Opus 47, three manuals, 43 ranks

Robert Thompson of nearby Saint Olaf College was consultant for this organ and gave the organ a decidedly French accent, although this is a congregation of Czech descendents. This was the only organ built during my time at the shop with supply house chests, ordered from Laukhuff. Robert Sperling always voiced in a Germanic style. Initially, the Recit 8′ flute sounded like a quintadena. After reworking it with higher cutups and nicks, it was the stop that elicited the most comments from visitors. Sperling thought he had ruined it. The whole time he was revoicing he grumbled that he was turning it into a 1920 Möller Melodia!

First Unitarian Church, Rochester, Minnesota, Opus 49, two manuals (with third coupler manual), 24 ranks

Merrill N. Davis, III, of Rochester was the consultant for this project. Fondly called “The Bell Organ,” the 2′ on the Ripieno division is a Glockenspiel; there is a wind-driven Zimbelstern; the Continuo mixture is a Glockenzimbel, which starts at 2⁄5′ pitch and includes a tierce on every note. The unison on the F above middle C is the F above high C of a 2′ and had to be voiced with a magnifying glass. Like First Lutheran Church, it has a third coupler manual. The casework is walnut, and the Continuo division in Rückpositiv position has no façade.

Saint John’s Lutheran Church, Kasson, Minnesota, Opus 57, two manuals, 29 ranks

Merrill N. Davis, III, was again consultant. Kasson is not far from Rochester. This organ was conceived with a big blockwerk on the Great based on a 16′ Principal with a big mixture. There are two cornets on the Great—a four-rank mounted cornet of flute scale, and a three-rank Sesquialtera of principal scale, along with a dark trumpet. Originally the Swell did not couple to either the Great or Pedal. These couplers have since been added. What started as an unsuccessful 1′ Principal on the Great was changed to 8⁄9′ to add spice to the ensemble and to the two cornets. The organ was originally tuned to Chaumont temperament.

Saint John’s Lutheran Church, Minneapolis, Minnesota, Opus 63, three manuals, 47 ranks

Saint John’s Lutheran Church in south Minneapolis is one of the biggest rebuild projects we undertook. Hillgreen-Lane had rebuilt the previous organ (perhaps a Hall) in 1959 at 32 ranks. Our 1983 rebuild significantly enlarged the organ and made access for tuning and servicing much easier than it had been in the Hillgreen-Lane organ. Many ranks were retained. Much of the Pedal is recycled from the Hillgreen-Lane. A string had been converted into an 8′ Gelind Gedackt by Hillgreen-Lane, but the scale was very small and the caps did not seal. We rescaled it again. We presume it had been Hillgreen-Lane that had soldered two diapasons together end-to-end to make a 16′ Salicional, which was retained. This organ had one of the early multiplex relay systems, this one donated by Dirk Moibroeck of Cincinnati (ICMI).

Union Presbyterian Church, Saint Peter, Minnesota, Opus 64, two manuals, 11 ranks

Though far from a significant organ, Union Presbyterian Church is an example of the smaller all-electric unit organs that were quite successful. Union Church’s acoustics were horribly dry when the organ was designed, but when the chancel was modified for the new organ we discovered a small space with a very warm acoustic. When the organ was first played the room amplified it too much! We dropped the pressure and revoiced everything. For many years this was the location of a well-attended hymn festival, and the organ has often been used with various instruments. A small-scale trumpet was added in later years, and the relay and combination action were recently replaced with current technology. The 4′ Octave, mixture, and trumpet are on the right side near the console. The Bourdon/Rohrflute and 8′ Principal trebles are on the left side behind the choir. The Swell is in the middle behind the grill, with the largest 16′ Subbass pipes (plywood) on its roof. Organist at the time, Charles Eggert, was consultant.

Saint Joseph’s Catholic Cathedral, Sioux Falls, South Dakota, Opus 78, three manuals, 62 ranks

The two largest organs were built after I left, and I have never seen the Sioux Falls organ. Nonetheless, it is a significant instrument in a large and very reverberant space.

Wayzata Community Church, Wayzata, Minnesota, Opus 92, four manuals, 70 ranks

The company’s magnum opus is in a suburb west of Minneapolis. C. Charles Jackson gave funds for it, and Charles Hendrickson’s long friendship with sculptor Paul Granlund at Gustavus Adolphus was the genesis of the sculpture (“Aeneous Aegis”) in the middle of the organ case. For many years this was home to an extensive organ concert series under staff organist, Diana Lee Lucker. Charles attended most of these concerts. Following Diana Lee’s retirement, this series ceased.

Trinity Episcopal Church, Excelsior, Minnesota, Opus 111, two manual, 29 ranks

Trinity Episcopal Church had been home to a five-rank Möller organ (Opus 8026). The new organ was impetus for a complete church remodel project, which is quite successful with movable chairs and hard surfaces. The Hendrickson organ includes pipes from the Möller as well as pipes from a practice organ (Opus 20) built for the University of Wisconsin in Eau Claire that was repurchased. Andreas Hendrickson designed the unusual façade.

Shop stories

The Luther College organ had a flotation system, which Charles developed the summer of 1971. Each iteration of his design resulted in the call to everyone in the shop to come and stand on a piece of plywood to see if it would float with the added weight. We eventually had a winner that was installed on the organ.

The Rochester Unitarian organ was playing in the shop when Jeff Davis came to see it. He did not like the relationship between the 4′ and 2′ of the Continuo division, so a new rank was ordered and the ranks affected were re-racked.

There was a fire at the shop on November 15, 2013, that originated in one of the light fixtures. Even though the majority of the building was left intact, insurance deemed the structure a loss, and a new building was put up in its place. Amazingly, only one wood pipe rank was in the shop at the time. The remainder of that particular project was stored down the hill in the nearby shop warehouse.

Children of the shop

Most organ shops have spinoffs, and Hendrickson’s shop was no exception. Notable among the “children” of the shop is Lynn Dobson, of Dobson Pipe Organ Builders, Ltd., of Lake City, Iowa, founded in 1974. I succeeded Robert Sperling as voicer in 1979 and remained until 1984. My company, Grandall and Engen, LLC, of Maple Grove, Minnesota, has been operating since 1984 and does tuning and enhancements for many clients in the Twin Cities area and western Wisconsin, including a number of universities. The third offshoot is Rob Hoppe, of Robert D. Hoppe & Associates of Algoma, Wisconsin, founded in 1986. He often builds new organs with digital enhancements. Charles’s two sons, Eric and Andreas, took over the business when Charles retired in 2015 and continue today.

 

Read more about Charles Hendrickson here.

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