Pilcher Bros., Chicago
Opus 128, 1871

Updated through online information from Carl Berg. -- I have confirmed that the 1871 Pilcher was the second organ in the building. It was replaced by a Hammond at some date I have not yet discovered. Possibly the Pilcher was damaged by water leaks in the tower - I cannot confirm, but the present condition of the original organ loft - and no remnant of the organ at all - may suggest this. The identity of the first organ is as yet unknown to me, and must be the one reported on in the war-era newspapers as having had its pipes removed. The windows of the church were also lost during the war, as were the pews. Current pews are post-war - 1880's I believe, and stained-glass windows are post-Civil War on the liturgical East wall of the Sanctuary, with much more recent vintage - 1960's and later - in the Nave.
Present organ is an electronic from 1994. Records from the 1850's and up until the 1960's are scarce and generally missing.

Updated through on-line information from Carl Berg. -- I am currently organist at Holy Trinity. The building was built in 1852 and used by the Union Army during the Civil War. Newspaper accounts report the organ pipes being carried by Union soldiers "over their shoulder, like muskets." There is no record of the instrument being replaced post-war, although there is mention that (perhaps) an organ was lent by St. Stephen's. This brings into question the 1871 date reported. Perhaps 1861? Otherwise, a 1-m Pilcher sounds rather likely, since there is a similar instrument extant in Spring Hill TN at another small Episcopal church.

Identified through information in the Pilcher factory ledgers, a handwritten list of organs and notes on the firm's history, and an emended list of organs from a catalog of c. 1870. For more information see the document referenced below.

58n man, 25n ped. Style no. 5 in published list with addition of Trumpet from Tenor C.