When the congregation of St. Mark’s Episcopal Church (Waterville, Maine) built their new sanctuary in 1977, it was designed around a pipe organ they had purchased through the Organ Clearing House. The organ was originally built ca. 1905 by the Votteler-Hettche Company of Cleveland, Ohio, for the New Haven Church of Christ in New Haven, Indiana. The two-manual, nine stop organ, was rebuilt, tonally revised and installed by the Stuart Organ Company of Springfield, MA. The organ retained its original mechanical key and stop action but, as was typical of the times, was given a thinner, brighter sound.

The instrument served St. Mark’s well for thirty years, but was lacking variety - especially for accompanying the choir and soloists. A committee was formed, chaired by Timothy Rector, to explore the idea of expanding the instrument or replacing it with a larger one. Mary Rector, the Church’s choir director, contacted Ben Mague at Andover - as they had been classmates at Colby College - and asked if we would be interested in providing a proposal. Ben examined the organ and we submitted a proposal to expand the organ rather than replace it. After much discussion and deliberation, the contract was awarded to Andover.

We removed the organ in June 2010. Aside from correcting some mechanical and winding problems, our main goal was to expand the instrument’s tonal pallet. To accomplish this we replaced one stop and added three new stops, plus a preparation for a fourth. These stops were chosen carefully with invaluable input from four respected area organists: Alan Wingard, organist at St. Mark’s; Kevin Birch of St. John’s R.C., Bangor, ME; Tom Mueller of the First Congregational Church in Camden, ME; and Jonathan Pelletier of St. Bartholomew’s Episcopal Church in Yarmouth, ME.

In its tonal revision, the Stuart Company had removed the string stops in favor of brighter chorus stops. We have added two string stops to the Swell division, a Salicional and its partner, a Celeste. The Celeste replaces the 1 1/3’ Quint while the full compass Salicional was added to the rear of the chest. The flexibility of the Great was enhanced by dividing the II Mixture into a 2 2/3’ Twelfth and a 2’ Fifteenth. A 4’ Silver Flute, with tapered harmonic pipes, was added to the Great to further expand the organ’s tonal resources. To make the Pedal more independent, an 8’ Flute was added and preparations made for the eventual addition of a 16’ Fagott.

In accomplishing these additions we did not want to change the organ’s appearance because it fits into the room so well. To make space for the manual additions, the organ was moved forward seven inches. The new Pedal stops are located behind the two pillars on either side of the organ with a simple screen installed between the pillars and the organ case to mask them. When the organ returned, the Church recognized it as an old friend, but one with an enhanced vocabulary. Even non-musical parishioners noticed its “warmer” sound.

The work was done under Team Leader Matthew Bellocchio with the tonal work under the direction of Don Glover. In addition the following people worked on the project: Ryan Bartosiewicz, Al Hosman, Tony Miscio, Fay Morlock, Jon Ross, Craig Seaman, and David Zarges.