Avalon Theater

Lost memory: the Barton organ in the Avalon was built on subcontract by the Wangerin company in nearby Milwaukee. The instrument remained in the theatre after it closed. A local Detroit theatre organ aficionado attempted to purchase it at a more than fair price, but the theatre owner Sarah Davidson would not sell it—she had delusions of greater financial gain by donating it to a church, which never happened. Scrappers got inside the building and took everything made of metal from the organ, including the pipes. The same individual purchased the remains of the organ from the shuttered theatre in 1970, and just the parts that remained live on in other instruments today.