PORT TOWNSEND — A truckload of antique organ pipes will be sold Saturday to fund renovation and maintenance of an antique organ now in use at Trinity United Methodist Church.
“These pipes are part of history,” said Stan Goddard, who is tuning and cataloging the pipes to prepare for the sale.
“We are hoping that someone who can appreciate them and put them to use [will buy them] so they aren’t used as firewood,” he added.
Goddard now has the items in his shop — 300 pipes of varied size, condition and pitch.
The pipe sale will take place from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. outside Trinity United Methodist Church, 609 Taylor St., Port Townsend.
The pipes will be sold for $5 each, regardless of size.
Will tell about pipes
Goddard promises a “dog-and-pony show” about the pipes and will offer advice as to how they can be turned into something useful.
The pipes need an air source to produce a tone and would need to be connected to a keyboard to play songs.
Or they could be bound together to build a set of panpipes that the user can blow into to make sounds.
The pipes were acquired from retired organ maker Clint Neadway of Everett, who called Goddard to help them find a home.
Goddard has renovated a romantic 19th-century organ at the church and a baroque organ, which is nearly complete.
The church currently is raising money to finish the voicing on the baroque organ, and selling the old pipes is part of that effort.
The notation for each pipe is stamped on its side. Goddard adjusts the pitch by blowing into one end and adjusting the other with a plunger, matching the tone to an electric tuner.
The sets aren’t always complete, though by sorting the pipes, Goddard hopes he will be able to offer a full octave of a particular style of pipe.
Variety of pipes
Goddard said he was amazed at the variety of pipes that Neadway provided, noting that some of them originated from before the Civil War.
Some of them are bent at 90-degree and 180-degree angles so people could install an organ in a small space and still get rich, deep tones.
Other pipes originate from organs that were used in movie theaters for a 20-year period ending in the 1930s.
“Organists would watch the screen and make a sound that would reflect what was going on in the movie at the time,” he said.
“But they stopped having organists at movies when the talkies came in.”
Goddard is counting on Port Townsend’s eccentric nature to provide a happy ending.
“In this city, I’m sure there are some nuts who can give these pipes a home and go with this,” he said.
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Jefferson County Reporter Charlie Bermant can be reached at 360-385-2335 or at charlie.bermant@peninsuladailynews.com.
