Excerpt from "Pipe Organs Of Chicago, Vol. II"
(reprinted by kind permission of the publisher) buy the book
With beginnings from a Sunday School class formed in January 1922 to serve Presbyterians in the North Evanston area, eighty-two charter members formally constituted Northminster Presbyterian Church on January 28, 1923. The following year, plans for a permanent home for the church began, with the present property purchased in 1926. The firm of Mundie and Jensen was selected to design the building in the Gothic style. Ground was broken on March 17, 1929, with the first service conducted in the completed building on October 27, two days after the stock market crash. Because of the ensuing economic conditions, it would be 1943 before the mortgage was finally paid off. The sanctuary was enlarged to its present size in 1958, thence seating 450 persons. The chancel stained-glass windows were crafted in 1955 by Connick Associates of Boston, Massachusetts, the same artists who completed the equally-spectacular narthex windows in 1959.
The first pipe organ installed in the church was finished in 1929 by the Geo. Kilgen & Son firm of Saint Louis, Missouri, a three-manual instrument, their opus 4381. It was installed in a chamber elevated at the right side of the chancel, speaking through a façade of pipes framed in wood carved in a Gothic motif to match the chancel furnishings. It cost $5,500, paid for by the Mothers’ Memorial fund. Chimes were added in 1947, retained for the present organ. In the mid-1950’s, the Kilgen organ was further enlarged with several ranks of pipes.
The present organ was built in 1983 by Casavant Frères, Limitée, of Saint-Hyacinthe, Québec, Canada. Opus 3563 is a two-manual, twenty-nine rank organ of electro-pneumatic action. The Swell division is installed behind the Connick stained-glass panels above the moveable organ console. The Recit [sic] shutters open on either side of the enclosure. Above the Recit division can be found most of the Grand Orgue division, with the Pedale and remainder of the Grand Orgue at the sides. Manual compass is 61 notes (C-C); Pedale compass (concave, radiating pedalboard) is 32 notes (C-G).
Specification of 1983 Casavant Frères, Limitée, opus 3563:
Gr. Orgue (Manual I)
- 16 Violon
- 8 Montre
- 8 Salicional (extension, 16’ Violon)
- 8 Flute a Cheminee
- 4 Prestant
- 2-2/3 Quinte
- 2 Doublette
- 1-3/5 Tierce
- IV-VI Fourniture (1-1/3’)
- 8 Trompette
- Tremblant
- Chimes (Maas-Rowe Cathedral Chimes, from
- tenor C, 21 tubes)
Recit (Manual II, Enclosed)
- 8 Flute a Fuseau
- 8 Viole de Gambe
- 8 Voix Celeste (from low G)
- 4 Octave
- 4 Flute Harmonique
- 2 Octavin
- III-V Plein Jeu (1’)
- 8 Hautbois
- Tremblant
Pedale
- 16 Contre Basse
- 16 Violon (from Gr. Orgue, 16’ Violon)
- 16 Flute a Cheminee (extension, Gr. Orgue,
- 8’ Flute a Cheminee)
- 8 Octave Basse (extension, 16’ Contre Basse)
- 8 Salicional (from Gr. Orgue, 16’ Violon)
- 8 Flute a Cheminee (from Gr. Orgue,
- 8’ Flute a Cheminee)
- 4 Octave
- 16 Bombarde
- 8 Trompette (extension, 16’ Bombarde)