Kentucky’s Mighty Wurlitzer-Theatre Organ Project, Inc (KMW-TOP, Inc) announces the receipt of a grant from the Rochester Area Community Foundation (RACF) - Lloyd E. Klos Historical Fund. Edward J. Doherty, Vice-President announced the $5,000 grant award earlier this year.
The Lloyd E. Klos Historical Funds, in addition to $3,500 earmarked for this rank in our Project Budget, provided a total of $8,500 required to purchase the 8’ Wurlitzer English Horn rank (61-notes). This acquisition completes our goal to purchase rare and authentic Wurlitzer pipework needed for our 3/18 Wurlitzer theatre organ project at the 1922 Kentucky Theatre, Lexington, KY.
Carlton Smith Pipe Organ Restorations, Indianapolis, KMW-TOP, Inc’s project restoration consultant patiently searched for eight years before locating this very rare rank for the Wurlitzer theatre pipe organ. This pipework is a solo reed voice and is the loudest of all ranks of the typical theatre organ.
The Wurlitzer Encyclopedia, Volume 4, indicates Wurlitzer manufactured 96 English Horn ranks for a select list of larger theatre organs produced by the Wurlitzer factory. This rare find originated from the Philadelphia (1927) Mastbaum Theatre’s 4/27 Publix 4 Wurlitzer organ (Opus 2000), which was parted last summer with the shuttering of the Music Palace in Sharonville, OH.
Two images of the 8’ Wurlitzer English Post Horn are available for download for publication use:
1.Wurlitzer English Post Horn rank (61-Notes) erected on a manual windchest. For scale, the door to the left of the rank is 8-feet tall.
2. Wurlitzer English Post Horn rank close-up, indicates in detail the right-hand side of the windchest with 30-pipes; the complexity of the
fabrication of the hand made pipework, including change to flues for the 5-upper notes, and mitering of the largest pipes to fit within the original installation Solo pipe chamber ceiling limitations.
In addition to following the American Theatre Organ Society’s “Instrument Preservation Guidelines,” our goal remains to a locate and purchase authentic Wurlitzer additions for our instrument’s expanded specification as developed by Lyn Larsen and Clark Wilson. The Kentucky Theatre’s Wurlitzer organ was born in 1922 as a 2/8 Style F (opus 562) and was Wurlitzer’s first Style F. Wurlitzer significantly enlarged this organ in 1925 (job number 703) with a new 3-manual console and additional ranks to a 3/14, making it the Mightiest Wurlitzer in the Commonwealth of Kentucky!