St. John’s Episcopal Church has an 1893 Farrand & Votey pipe organ rebuilt by Jim Hammann of New Orleans. It has 7 ranks of pipes. One rank is from a Katrina-damaged Unitarian church in New Orleans. It was being installed when Katrina hit but was not damaged. Installation was completed in 2006. Dr. Carol Britt discovered this organ when she was looking for an organ to install in her house. She saw it in Jim Hammann’s shop and thought it would be perfect for St. John’s. Jim acquired this organ from an Episcopal mission church in North Carolina because he had written his doctoral dissertation on the Farrand & Votey organ company and he specializes in saving and rebuilding and maintaining historic organs. St. John’s originally had an electronic Allen organ but was in the beginning stages of renovating and restoring the church when we decided to purchase this organ. The 1893 pipe organ was installed in the choir loft and a separate two-manual console from the 1920s was purchased and installed down front.
Thanks to LaDonna Alexander, our gifted church organist, pianist, and choir director, for the information on the organ and console. What a blessing LaDonna is to our church community at St. John's.
