Tuesday, December 29, 2015

Home Moravian Church, Winston-Salem, North Carolina, USA


My wife found these two postcards for me for Christmas this year. She found the exterior card of Home Moravian first, and decided to keep plowing through the bins. She shortly came across the organ card. The exterior card is used, having been sent to a resident of Baltimore, MD. The stamp is missing. It shows the west end of the church from the early part of the 20th century. The card is dated January 28, either 1910 or 1918.

The interior card shows the whole chancel area of the church, including green(!) carpeting. Assuming the date of his card is roughly the same as the exterior (no guarantees whatsoever), the organ shown is probably the Kimball instrument which was installed in 1913. The Organ Historical Society's database provides this information (among other information):

FROM "THE MUSIC OF THE MORAVIAN CHURCH IN AMERICA" Edited by Nola Reed Knouse University of Rochester Press, 2008 Essay 5: The Organ in Moravian Church Music; Lou Carol Fix - pg.159 "A new two manual and pedal organ of twenty-two stops built by the Kimball firm of Chicago was installed in 1913 with the latest technology of full pneumatic action. A church member wrote that 'the console was large because of the may lead tubes and bellows required to operate.'" 

And this:

Notably, Mrs. Bessie Whittington Pfohl (wife of Bishop Kenneth Pfohl) was organist when this instrument replaced the Tannenberg and was still living when it was replaced by the current Aeolian-Skinner. 

Regarding the Pfohl family mentioned in the second citation: a granddaughter of Bishop Pfohl sings in the choir at the church where I serve as musician.

The Kimball instrument was replaced in 1959 with an Aeolian-Skinner instrument. Parts of the Kimball instrument were incorporated into other instruments in Moravian churches in the area, and parts remain in storage at the church.