The Futch Memorial Organ

First Presbyterian Church’s historic pipe organ was built for and installed in the church in 1896 by the Boston firm Hook and Hastings. Hook and Hastings was the leading organ builder of the 19th century, building more than 2500 organs across the United States before the firm ceased operations in 1936. Funding for the organ was made possible through a generous $7,000 gift from Mrs. George Ball. Only nine Hook and Hastings organs were installed in Texas prior to this one, most of which no longer exist. The organ at First Presbyterian is the largest Hook and Hastings in Texas and the oldest in Texas still in the space for which it was originally designed.

 

When originally built, the organ had a mechanical system known as a tracker action with slider wind chests operated by a water motor. The organ originally contained 30 ranks of pipes across three manuals in four divisions.

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Several modifications to the instrument were made over the next century, not all sympathetic. The water motor was soon replaced by an electric blower. In 1956, the tracker action was replaced by a direct electric action and the organ was reconditioned by Wicks Organ Company representatives from Dallas who installed a new console.

 

In 1977, organ builder Roy Redman was retained to rebuild the organ, whereupon it was removed in its entirety to Redman’s shop in Fort Worth. The organ was returned to tracker action and the number of pipe ranks was expanded to 57. Redman's additions were considered highly sympathetic to the original design of the instrument only using pipework from Hook & Hastings organs of similar vintages. Despite all these changes, the original pipes, case, and pipe decorations remained.

 

Hurricane Ike pushed three feet of storm surge into the sanctuary on September 13, 2008, seriously damaging the console as well as the organ’s electrical and wind mechanisms. Due to the devasting effects on the building, the organ sat in a damp environment for a month until remediation efforts could begin in earnest. Even then, it remained in an environment that lacked any climate control until air conditioning was restored in early 2011. During that time and for a few months thereafter, work inside the sanctuary proceeded with the attendant production of vibration and dust, enveloping the organ’s remaining working mechanisms and infiltrating the pipes. Out of necessity, the church’s available resources were directed to restoring the sanctuary, offices, and Sunday school classrooms first – restoration of the organ had to wait.