In discussion for several years, the European Commission was drafting European Parliament Directive regarding a broad-sweeping ban on the use of lead, including in the manufacture of pipe organs. Used not only in electrical component solder, lead is a key and irreplaceable component in the manufacture of organ pipes. The passage of this ban would have been catastrophic for organs and builders on both sides of the Atlantic Ocean, and could have spelled the extinction of the pipe organ in Europe. After years of negotiations by the International Society of Organbuilders, (John Mander and Goran Grahn in particular), the Commission just released its amended lead directive with a full exemption for the pipe organ. Great news indeed.
S.L. HUNTINGTON & CO.FEATURED ON THE COVER
OF THE AMERICAN ORGANIST MAGAZINE
FEBRUARY, 2017
Cover photo features a restoration by S.L. Huntington & Co.
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The year is 1877. Famed organ builder Hilborne Roosevelt (Teddy's cousin) has just finished his Opus 34 for Commodore Elbridge Gerry's Lake House at Lake Delaware, New York. Roosevelt later upgraded this two manual organ to three in 1886. In 1912, three years after the Commodore's son, Robert Livingston Gerry, founded the non-profit Lake Delaware Boys' Camp (LDBC), the organ was donated by the Commodore to the Camp and it was installed in the Camp chapel, St. Joseph's, where it remains to this day.