Morningside Uniting Church
[Photograph by Howard Baker (1990s)]
Morningside Uniting Church
[Photograph by Howard Baker (1990s)]
Historical and Technical Documentation by Geoffrey Cox
© OHTA 2011, 2014 (last updated April 2014)
The organ in this church was completed in June 1947 by Whitehouse Bros of Brisbane at a cost of £1,102.0.0, to a specification that had been drawn up in May 1944.The relevant Whitehouse Bros Ledger entry is as follows:
1947 June 20 |
Building and erecting complete in the M'side Meth Ch 1 Two-manual & pedal pipe organ as per spec & est dated 22 May 1944. |
£1000 |
|
Increased cost of metal pipes |
£ 56 |
||
Increased Wage costs |
£ 25 |
||
Increased cost of action parts & materials |
£ 21 |
||
_______ £1102.1 |
|||
The instrument was donated by Mrs F.E. White and Miss J.E. White and dedicated to the memory of Robert G. White, who died in 1943.2 It was dedicated on Sunday 22 June 1947.3
[Photographs by Howard Baker (1990s)]
The specification for both this instrument and the one at St Paul's Presbyterian Church, Casino, NSW had been drawn up in 1944 with 8 speaking stops, although neither was completed until 1947. There were two additional stops provided at Casino in 1947, but these instruments were essentially identical to the organs for the Methodist Church, Lutwyche (8 stops, 1949), the Methodist Church, Chermside (8 stops, 1950) and the Toowoomba Preparatory School (9 stops, 1949).
This reflected the highly standardised design for pneumatic-action organs built by the firm from the early 1910s onwards. These instruments all used cone-pallet chests and featured 'inclined-block' stop-tabs placed in a row above the upper manual. The duplexing of the Swell string stop on the Great Organ was a common feature from the early 1930s onwards, and later instruments such as this at Morningside used the same name (Salicional) for both stops. The casework was also standardised, with a central flat of 15 pipes, and two side-flats of 3 pipes.
[Photograph by Howard Baker (1990s)]
| GREAT Open Diapason Salicional Flute SWELL Violin Diapason Gedact Salicional Principal PEDAL Bourdon COUPLERS Swell to Great Swell to Pedals Great to Pedals Swell to Great Super |
8 8 4 8 8 8 4 16 |
A A |
Tremulant (general)
Attached stop-key console
Balanced swell pedal (brass shoe)
Tubular-pneumatic action
Compass: 61/30.4
___________________________________________________________________________
1 Whitehouse Bros Ledger (1940-1954), p. 318.
2 Personal communication to G. Cox from Miss J.E. White, February 1974.
3 The Courier-Mail (14 June 1947), p. 5.
4 Specification noted by G. Cox, August 1974.