First Lutheran Church, Waterbury

Our project for the First Lutheran Church of Waterbury began when we where approached by Gordon Auchincloss. We knew Gordon from our years at Austin Organs, where Gordon worked as an Assistant Vice-President until he had retired.

Gordon's wife Joyce was the organist at First Lutheran, and as such Gordon had for many years served as unofficial organ consultant to the church. Ever since assuming maintenance over the McManis/Möller pipe organ, there had been discussion with us of upgrades, tonal finishing and additions to the instrument.

Thanks to fundraising efforts at the church, we were able to begin work on the project in late Spring of 2004. The console was disassembled, removed and brought back to our shop to be rebuilt and fitted with a new solid state capture and control system.

Additions to the organ included a 4' Octave, and replacement of the original 1 1/3' Great Mixture with a more suitably scaled chorus Mixture based on 2' pitch. The console and new components were installed mid-September 2004, and the organ was used again for Sunday services on October 16, 2004.