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Our Hook & Hastings Organ
The Hook and Hastings Organ
The Organ at First Congregational Church United Church of Christ was built by the famous Boston builder Hook and Hastings in 1888 and installed in the newly constructed church building in 1889. It is the oldest original working pipe organ in Colorado Springs and the facade is the largest original Hook and Hastings facade west of the Mississippi. .
It is believed that the organ was shipped by barge from Boston to the Gulf of Mexico and up the Mississippi River to St. Louis. Upon arrival in St. Louis it was then transported west to Colorado Springs by railroad and delivered to the church by freight wagon. The freight information is still readable on the wood cartons which were used (a practice of the time) to build the enclosure for the Swell division. As most nineteenth century pipe organs in the area, the original organ was powered by water, However, churches were forced to electrify the blowers when during a drought in Colorado, the city shut off all water for this use.
The original organ had 36 registers but it was expanded and altered in rebuilds in 1950 and 1972. Today, the organ has 50 ranks and 38 stops with three manuals and pedal. There are no unifications, duplications or extensions. The action of the organ is tracker.
The present specification of the organ.
Hook and Hastings, Op. 1432 (1888)
Great Positiv
16’ Principal 8’ Holzgedackt
8’ Principal 4’ Principal
8’ Gedackt 4’ Rohrflote
4’ Octave 2’ Waldflote
4’ Spillflote 1 1/3` Larigot
2 2/3’ Quint III Scharf
2’ Octave 8’ Krummhorn
IV Mixture Tremolo
8’ Trompet
Swell Pedal
8’ Principal 16’ Holzprincipal
8’ Rohrflote 16’ Subbass
8’ Dolcan 8’ Octave
8’ Dolcan Celeste 8’ Gedackt
4’ Principal 4’ Choralbass
4’ Spitzflote 2’ Nachthorne
2 2/3’ Nazard IV Mixture
II Sesquialtera 16’ Posaune
IV Scharf 4’ Schalmei
16’ Basson
8’ Oboe Schalmei
4’ Clarion
Tremolo
Frank Shelton, FCC Music Director & Organist
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