The pipe organ in King Chapel was being carefully removed over the past two weeks from the work of contractor Buzard Organ Company in Champaign, Ill.
The $2.9 million dollar organ at Cornell was being safely removed by a subcontractor, The Organ Clearinghouse, based out of Massachusetts, who is one of the top five people to handle older organs.
Amory Atkins, owner of The Organ Clearinghouse said he has helped remove more than 600 organs in his 35 years in business, which made the work on the King Chapel organ much easier.
“You get a real scope of which pieces you can use a little more force to remove, and which pieces take a more delicate hand to remove them safely,” Atkins said. “Each of those pipes is important to the instrument functioning correctly.”
He estimated the number of crates he’d need just looking at historical photos of the organ itself, as well as the rough size of the organ in photos he saw and saw the blueprints his first day on the job for the other elements he couldn’t predict.
He also noted that one of the things he and his crew worry about are any minor ding or damage to the organ pieces, as each of those pieces can be impacted by minor dings, scratches or other damage.
Cornell College’s DeAnn Rexroat noted the organ was originally installed in 1967 brand new, and was retrofitted in 1999. This would mark the second time it has been moved since it was installed in King Chapel, and the third organ in that space. The retrofit in 1999 allowed the organ to be played digitally, which helped in the recording process. The first organ in King Chapel was installed in 1899, the second organ in 1931, and now this organ in 1967. This organ is noted as an antique.
The project was slated to take between three and four weeks to complete, but Atkins and his crew expect that they would be completed with the removal of the pipes by Friday, Dec. 10, and then transporting those pieces that comprise the organ to Champaign.
All told, more than 160 crates were on hand to safely store the organ pipes and pieces, comprising more than 10,000 different moving parts of all sizes on their transit from Mount Vernon to Champaign, Ill.
For Atkins, the removal of the pipe organ this early in the process was the smart move for the college to have made.
“I’ve been on other projects where someone says something like ‘we’ll just put a tarp over the organ’ and tries similar repairs, and halfway through the project, when I’m called in to move the organ, it’s seen significant damage,” Atkins said.
At Champaign, the pipes will each individually be cleaned and then stored properly as they wait for the repairs to King Chapel to be completed.
That project, according to Scott Ladwig, construction projects manager for Cornell College, could take between half a year to a year and a half to complete.
“We really don’t know the scope of the damage to the foundation or trusses until we can more safely get to those spaces, and the first step to do that process is removing this organ,” Ladwig said. “We’re also going to be looking at what we need to remove of the stained-glass windows before we start further repairs.”
The pews and some of the woodwork will also be removed in the space, since scaffolding will be needed to support the roof, starting at the basement level of King Chapel on to the top of the roof.
One of the things Ladwig noted about Atkins was the passion he and The Organ Clearinghouse had in doing the project safely, but also doing things as efficiently as possible.
“They’ve been working sun up until well after sun down to make this look like quick work,” Ladwig said.
For Ladwig, that pipe organ is one of the important features of King Chapel that was best to be removed, especially with the amount of dust and needing to get access to the roof and trusses the repair project will need to complete in the coming months.
Work is slated to begin on the rest of the repairs at King Chapel in March 2022, as crews evaluate more of the damage they see to the trusses and foundation.
Cornell will also have other repairs and projects under construction throughout 2022, including the work on the sports complex, and repairs to McWethy Hall, Olin Hall and Cole Library that crews will also be working on this spring, as well as a few other residential properties.
“My goal is we’re going to be just as busy as we were this year on derecho repairs to our buildings,” Ladwig said. “We’ve gotten to a point where I’m able to make the repairs to King Chapel a secondary project to some of the other projects we have going on at the campus. “
The project is not a remodel, Ladwig reiterated, but repairs due to damage caused by the derecho to the trusses in the interior, as well as the foundation of the building.
Repair estimates are still in the early stages for the cost of the entire project, Ladwig said. Cornell College director of communications DeeAnn Rexroat said estimates currently put the project at $8.9 million.
“I’ve been so relieved to be back in the building this past week as we’ve been documenting the organ being removed,” Rexroat said. “I can’t wait for these repairs to be made so we can start using this building once again.”
For both Rexroat and Ladwig, though, they know the importance of King Chapel, not just to Cornell College students and alumnus, but to the members of the Mount Vernon community.
“It’s important to the people of Mount Vernon that we take the steps we can to preserve this incredible building,” Rexroat said.
Workers with The Organ Clearinghouse work on installing scaffolding to get at elements of the organ removal at Cornell College Wednesday, Dec. 8.