The organ chambers are located and the left and right side of the stage and about twenty feet above the stage. This kept the pipe chambers completely isolated from the water. The only thing lost was the console. The relay was in the left(Main) chamber and the contacts inside the chest looked like they were only five years old. The chest leather is perfect, probably due to being only ten years old when it was played last and the chest had not had any air in them in over fifty years. Dan Barton told me years ago that the leather he used was super high quality and he used egg white whipped up to seal the pores in the leather to make them more air tight—this is something that several companies did during this error. Everything that Barton built was very much oversized. If a ½" piece of wood would do, he would use 1 ¼". Dan told me that he only wanted to sell organs that was within a days ride on train from Oskosh but he had got on a boat and was thrown off in Paducah. He said he sure liked to drink and that he sold the two organs here and with the downpayment, had the money to get back home. Must say he was something else! I trained with M. P. Moller and have been a organ builder for thirty eight years. Most of my early work was restoring theater pipe organs in the 70’s and wished that I could have got the Columbia’s owner to have kept the organ in the theater. He wanted no part of it and more than glad to get rid of it. A couple of weeks after I removed it, the owner called me to say he found the super large bass drum in a dressing room along with the hand painted leather covered tom tom. When I went to get them, he showed me a filling cabinet drawer in his office full of black and white photos of the theater taken during the late 20’s and early 30’s. Wonder what became of these photos? They showed some very famous people on stage along with the organ console. Thanks for your interest in this organ. I forgot to mention that the other organ in a Paducah theater went to the landfill and I have the rosewood zylophone which is the only part that survived.
I am Mike Mount in Martin, Tn. and I bought the 2manual 5 rank Barton theater pipe organ out of the Columbia Theater in 1983. The organ was installed in 1927 according to signatures in the main pipe chamber(Left side of stage). The organ only played for ten years when the flood wiped out the console and by then the sound movies had taken over. The main chamber had three ranks of pipes and the solo chamber(right side of the stage) had two ranks. I have added this organ to a 3/9 rank Barton organ in my home here in Martin. The ceiling is very beautiful from the attic side. There are many light bulbs that were used to light the ceiling. The owner at the time I bought the organ told me the ceiling had been painted around 1950. The stained glass is still there. The Arcade had a very small cabinet organ made by Barton and it was lost in the flood and never replaced either. The Arcade instrument was about the size of a very large upright piano and sat in a small alcove. If anyone would like to contact me about the above, feel free to do so. Mike
Thanks for your interest in the Barton Pipe Organ.
My email address is:
Phone # 731-587-6345
Mike W. Mount
117 Gardner Rd.
Martin, Tn. 38237-8220
The organ chambers are located and the left and right side of the stage and about twenty feet above the stage. This kept the pipe chambers completely isolated from the water. The only thing lost was the console. The relay was in the left(Main) chamber and the contacts inside the chest looked like they were only five years old. The chest leather is perfect, probably due to being only ten years old when it was played last and the chest had not had any air in them in over fifty years. Dan Barton told me years ago that the leather he used was super high quality and he used egg white whipped up to seal the pores in the leather to make them more air tight—this is something that several companies did during this error. Everything that Barton built was very much oversized. If a ½" piece of wood would do, he would use 1 ¼". Dan told me that he only wanted to sell organs that was within a days ride on train from Oskosh but he had got on a boat and was thrown off in Paducah. He said he sure liked to drink and that he sold the two organs here and with the downpayment, had the money to get back home. Must say he was something else! I trained with M. P. Moller and have been a organ builder for thirty eight years. Most of my early work was restoring theater pipe organs in the 70’s and wished that I could have got the Columbia’s owner to have kept the organ in the theater. He wanted no part of it and more than glad to get rid of it. A couple of weeks after I removed it, the owner called me to say he found the super large bass drum in a dressing room along with the hand painted leather covered tom tom. When I went to get them, he showed me a filling cabinet drawer in his office full of black and white photos of the theater taken during the late 20’s and early 30’s. Wonder what became of these photos? They showed some very famous people on stage along with the organ console. Thanks for your interest in this organ. I forgot to mention that the other organ in a Paducah theater went to the landfill and I have the rosewood zylophone which is the only part that survived.
I am Mike Mount in Martin, Tn. and I bought the 2manual 5 rank Barton theater pipe organ out of the Columbia Theater in 1983. The organ was installed in 1927 according to signatures in the main pipe chamber(Left side of stage). The organ only played for ten years when the flood wiped out the console and by then the sound movies had taken over. The main chamber had three ranks of pipes and the solo chamber(right side of the stage) had two ranks. I have added this organ to a 3/9 rank Barton organ in my home here in Martin. The ceiling is very beautiful from the attic side. There are many light bulbs that were used to light the ceiling. The owner at the time I bought the organ told me the ceiling had been painted around 1950. The stained glass is still there. The Arcade had a very small cabinet organ made by Barton and it was lost in the flood and never replaced either. The Arcade instrument was about the size of a very large upright piano and sat in a small alcove. If anyone would like to contact me about the above, feel free to do so. Mike