History of the Robert M. Turner Organ
Organ Installation Photos Click Here

Carol Berard reported to the church board of directors in 1996 that the Austin organ was requiring upwards of $10,000 a year in maintenance, with major renovation in sight. She noted that several ranks were unplayable. Berard and music director Bruce McClurg pointed out that new ranks were needed to brighten the tone from its original romantic, muffled sound.

The board of directors allocated $2,000 for the initial gathering of information from organ experts. The Organ Selection Committee of volunteers was chaired by Dr. Richard Rau and included Berard, McClurg, Nelda M. Stuck, Bud Miner, Jane Hawkins, John Howard, John Runkel, Ed Houston and Ray Mills.

The committee met nearly a dozen times from October 1996 to the final vote March 17, 1999, to hear presentations from several organ builders, to visit four churches to inspect their organs, and to hear the organs demonstrated and in concert. Some 35 members of the church enjoyed a charter bus trip to Santa Monica to see a demonstration of the Robert Turner organ at the Santa Monica Methodist Church and then went on to see a pipe and electronic organ at Bel Air Presbyterian Church in Los Angeles.

The committee gradually concluded that our 100-year-old church needed to offer the kind of music a pipe organ can give, and that the area’s major organists only want to perform on pipe organs.

Robert Turner, whose workshop is in Hacienda Heights, was selected as builder of the new organ and console. The organ called for 43 ranks for $376,000 in pipe work plus $51,133 for the new three-manual console. Two families then contributed additionally for the ????-pipe trompette en chamade mounted at the back of the sanctuary.

Monte L. Stuck chaired the half million-dollar fund raising, which was given a substantial initial boost with the $140,000 bequest from the Jordan Engberg estate. Some 30 families donated $5,000 or more each.

Robert Carothers was appointed contractor for the project, with included many weeks of removing pipes and organ framework as well as plaster and lathe, re-enforcing support studs, installing insulation, wallboard, and painting. Several truckloads of refuse from the demolition were hauled away.

Ed Houston and Raymond Mills co-chaired the renovation of the choir loft, moving the entire loft forward three feet so that there would be more room in the pipe chamber and elevating and extending the entire four choir rows out into the sanctuary to bring out more choir sound.

The actual rebuilding contract was signed in the fall of 1999 with an estimated completion of 12-15 months. The organ was actually completed just in time for The Spinet Redlands music organization’s organ recital meeting to which the public was invited in May 2002.

The completed organ contains 50 ranks and 3,130 pipes. Carol Berard gave a demonstration program August 25, 2002, which was followed by a PowerPoint presentation of photos taken over the three-year construction process and by an ice cream/cake social.

Four official dedication programs were scheduled including Carol Berard on September 22, 2002; Kimo Smith on November 17, Thomas Murray on March 16, and a fourth to be announced.

The First Congregational Church of Redlands, founded in 1880 broke ground for its early church on Cajon Street in 1890, and expanded to build its sanctuary in 1899.

By February 1902, a 12-member committee was investigating the merits of various organ builders and unanimously recommended the purchase of a three-manual (27 speaking stops) organ to be built by the Austin Organ Company of Hartford, Conn., for $7,000. Among those serving on the committees to select the builder and to carry out the plan approved by the congregation were such well-known Redlands citizens as M.M. Phinney, A.H. Smiley,Kirke H. Field, Eldridge M. Lyon, S.D. Spoor, and H.P.D. Kingsbury.

The Austin organ was installed in the church by November 1902 and dedicated November 5 with final costs nearly $8,000. Edith Rounds Smith, the first organist for First Congregational and one of the best-known of area organists, directed the music for nearly 20 years.

This first Austin to be built on the West Coast was the first organ erected in California having the new patented Austin system of wind supply. The airtight wind chest room which replaced the customary bellows provided a constant supply of air for the pipes.

A new electric blower was installed in 1927 and new chests and pipe work added. The console was brought down to the main floor of the sanctuary at this time. Much of the money to rebuild and add the additional pipes was given by Mary Kimberly Shirk. The pitch of the organ was also raised to A440 - the present international pitch.

The next major overhaul to the organ came in 1964, with $25,000 covering the costs of a new Austin console and organ repairs.

In 1972, the Coronation Carillon was added and dedicated to Mary Kimberly Shirk. This was the last major renovation until the turn of the 21 st century.

Edith Rounds Smith served as organist until 1921, followed by Anna Blanche Foster until 1939; Bette Virginia Paine/Marti until 1943 or ’44; Richard Stanley from 1945 to the early 1950s; Erwin Ruff beginning in 1955; Kathryn Knapp James from 1961-1974 and later; Dorothy Hester from 1977 to 1990, and Carol Cutler Berard from 1990 to the present.

By Nelda M. Stuck

Organ Installation Photos
Photos By Monte Stuck

Robert Turner with new console "in the rough"	Robert Carothers, organ loft construction chief, with pipes to be rebuilt
Organ loft completed, with insulation in place	Organ components arrive in Redlands via Mayflower van
Moving new console into the sanctuary	New organ pipe mounts
Electronic/PVC piping construction	One of the many boxes of pipes stored for installation on our new organ.
The beautiful new console being created in the Turner workshop.	Chamade - A French term applied to reed stops, usually of powerful character, tubes of which lie horizontally.
Our parishioner, the late Bob Carothers, oversaw and guided the entire construction process. Thanks, Bob.	Robert M. Turner Organ