Zion Lutheran Church
Walla Walla

1869 George Fincham, reb. 1967 Laurie Pipe Organs (2m., 27 sp.st., 8c., el. pn.)

Photo: TB

From 2003 OHTA Conference Booklet:

The present Zion Church is the third church building on the site. The first (now demolished) was opened in 1870, the second (serving as the hall) in 1889 and the present church in 1924, a spacious cruciform building with tower and spire.

In l 913 J.E. Dodd supplied the church with a small two-manual mechanical action organ of nine speaking stops which was sold in 1967 to St Peter's Anglican Church, Leeton. The Dodd instrument suffered tonal modifications in 1973 when it was transferred to a new building on the Leeton site; it is in poor condition today.

The organ was built in l869 by George Fincham for the Wesleyan Church, South Melbourne. The case, consisting of three gabled flats, was unusual in Fincham's oeuvre but very similar to the case of the John Courcelle organ in St Luke's Anglican Church in the same suburb. Various tonal alterations and substitutions were carried out over the years.

The organ as it was originally at the Methodist Church, Cecil Street,
South Melbourne, Victoria (Uniting Church Victoria & Tasmania Archives)

The specification, recorded in l 961 by John Henwood, was as follows:

GREAT Open Diapason Clarabella Dulciana Principal Flute Fifteenth Trumpet Clarionet Swell to Great SWELL Double Diapason Open Diapason Stop'd Diapason Keraulophon Celeste Principal Piccolo Oboe Clarion PEDAL Open Diapason Great to Pedal Swell to Pedal

8 8 8 4 4 2 8 8 16 8 8 8 8 4 2 8 4 16

Upon the closure (and subsequent demolition) of the church in 1965, the instrument was rebuilt by Laurie Pipe Organs in 1967 and installed on a transept gallery of the church at Walla Walla. The action was converted to electro-pneumatic, a detached drawknob console supplied, and several tonal changes took place, particularly additions to the pedal division.

GREAT Open Diapason Clarabella Dulciana Principal Harmonic Flute Fifteenth Mixture 15.19.22 Trumpet Cromorne hooded SWELL Open Diapason Stopt Diapason Keraulophone Voix Celeste Principal Piccolo Sesquialtera 12.17 Oboe Clarion Tremulant PEDAL Open Diapason Bourdon Quint Octave Flute Super Octave Trombone Trumpet Octave Trumpet

8 8 8 4 4 2 III 8 8 8 8 8 8 4 2 II 8 4 16 16 10-2/3 8 8 4 16 8 4

gvd.bass Ten.C new A Ten. C gvd. bass Ten. C new extended bass octave to 8ft B C former swell Double Diapason with new bass octave C B C B A new bass octave A A

compass: 61/32

electro-pneumatic action
detached drawknob console

8 couplers
adjustable thumb & toe pistons

- Historical information provided by John Wenke 2003.
- John Maidment, Gazetteer of New South Wales Pipe Organs. Melbourne: Society of Organists (Victoria) lnc., 1981.
- E.N. Matthews, Colonial Organs and Organbuilders. Carlton; Melbourne University Press, 1969, pp. 151-152.
- Society of organists (Victoria) incorporated Newsletter November 1967, p. 11 .
- Bob Jefferson, Steve Laurie, Organ Builder: His Life and Works. Somers, Vic. : the Author, 1998, pp.288-290.