St John's, Church Hill, Richmond, VA USA

St John's Episcopal Church in Richmond, VA is famous for being the site of Patrick Henry's "give me liberty or give me death" speech. The parish capitalizes on this with regulated entrance to the facility, tours, and re-enactments of the speech inside the building. The church is also an active congregation with its own website. My postcard is one of several from the same era created by the church as part of the marketing of the Patrick Henry tie-in. They are all fairly common.

This color postcard at the top is used, with a note on the front with the date January 10, 1907. The church website states "the Adam Stein organ was installed in 1905 and restored in 1983." That would make the card contemporaneous with the new instrument. John DeMayo's more accurate site detailing Episcopal Churches in the region gives the years 1903 and 1985, with the latter work being done by the Virginia firm, Lewis and Hitchcock. His page also gives the specification. The card just above is not dated so I will not hazard a guess as to its time frame. Subtle differences between the wo cards (light fixture, stone tablet, transept door) distinguish the two and suggest different time frames. This second card is unused.

Elm Park United Methodist, Scranton, PA, USA

 

Ground was broken for the present edifice for Elm Park Methodist Church in 1893. At that time a large Farrand and Votey organ was installed in the chancel area of the sanctuary. It included four manual divisions plus pedals, and had 68 stops and more than 2200 pipes. It served the congregation in that configuration for about 60 years when renovation work was done.  In 1995 the Reuter firm of Lawrence, Kansas removed the old instrument, conserved some pipework and constructed a new instrument, their opus 2179. The new instrument uses electronics to provide the lowest notes of two 32' stops in the pedals. The Reuter site does not give specifics, but we can learn the instrument has 3 manuals and 53 ranks.

My card is color showing a large swath of the sanctuary, including space that could have been closed off by a moving wall at the back of the room. The image clearly shows the organ and window at the front of the room. It seems that the new Reuter instrument kept the facade look of the Farrand and Votey instrument, minus the stenciling on the facade pipes. My card is used with the stamp removed, but the postmark indicating the year it was sent was 1910.

St Severin, Paris, France

St Severin as it appears now dates to the 15th through 17th centuries, while the building exists where  a church stood as early as the 11th century. The organ dates from 1748, when an instrument by Claude Ferrand was installed. Significant changes and work occurred in 1889 and 1964. Most recently in 2011 more work has been completed by Quentin Blumenroeder. View the specification here. This site gives some more details about what is referred to as the Kern organ.

My card is an unused black and white example. I have been somewhat confused by the perspective for some time. I think the viewer is positioned in the apse looking down the south aisle of the building, with the organ on a gallery at the west end of the edifice.The low wall which seems to be separating the apse from the chancel is confusing to me simply because I have not seen this sort of arrangement before.

Congregational Church, Osage, Iowa, USA

This card shows the pipe organ in the Congregational Church of Osage, Iowa. As best I can tell the church is now known as the Osage United Church of Christ. That congregation is in its fourth building in that town. The third building burned in 1951 having been completed in 1902. The fourth building was completed in 1954. I assume that this picture shows the 3rd building and its organ. The Organ Historical Society has information about the organ/church in its database, but as the instrument was destroyed by the fire, they have no specification, and only the most meager information. My used card is black and white, very much like that shown at the OHS database site. It was posted from Osage to Portland, OR with a one-cent Franklin stamp. The postmark indicates the year was 1910.