Portland, Oregon
Joe O'Donnell , Organist

The organ recently installed in the First Unitarian Church's Main Street Sanctuary was built in the 1870's by Hutchings, Plaisted & Co.of Boston, Massachusetts. The site of its original installation is still uncertain; evidence suggests that it was moved to its second home, St. Francis Xavier Catholic Church in Moundsville, West Virginia, by another Boston firm, A.B. deCourcey & Co., between 1908 and 1916. The organ served there until the early 1970's, when the church acquired an electronic substitute. The instrument was dismantled and stored by the Bunn-Minnick company of Columbus, Ohio, and subsequently sold to Joe Horning of Los Angeles, California, who planned to enlarge the organ and install it in his residence. With the aid of organ builder Manuel Rosales, Horning modified the slider windchests to accommodate additional stops, but never succeeded in putting the instrument together.

Portland organist and AGO member, James Isaak, acquired the organ from Mr. Horning and brought it to Portland in hopes of installing it in the church he was serving at the time.

After that church proved uninterested, the instrument languished in the storage loft of Bond Organ Builders until it was proposed as a possibility for First Unitarian. The church was seeking an organ for its Main Street Sanctuary, which had become the exclusive site for Sunday worship in fall 1999. The organ committee selected it on the basis of its striking visual design, its contrasting character to the Wicks organ in the Salmon Street Sanctuary, and the value of resurrecting such a historic instrument. The organ was partially set up in the Bond workshop in the spring of 2000 for assessment of its condition and to provide measurements for modifications to the chancel in the summer of 2000. Work on the organ commenced in earnest in late May of 2001. Manual windchests were re-tabled, the pipes were cleaned and set on speech and new pedal windchests and key action were designed and constructed. The walnut case was repaired and refinished; new panels, moldings and ornaments were crafted to replace missing ones. Original hand-painted decorations on the display pipes were preserved by carefully painting a new background color around the them.

Installation began on Monday, October 8, when the organ was delivered to the church. It was played in worship for the first time on Sunday, October 21. Tonal finishing was completed in early November. The first dedicatory recital was played by Marvin Mills of Washington DC's National City Christian Church on November 17. The church's organist, Joe O'Donnell, will play the second recital on March 2, 2002. The organ now comprises 18 stops, 21 ranks and 1177 pipes.