vividreports: Amazing discovery

Tuesday, June 11, 2019

Amazing discovery

I ran across an amazing discovery this afternoon - an interior photograph of the First Congregational Church in Texarkana, Arkansas, where my father was the pastor, 1941-1942. That building was torn down many decades ago (to make way for a hospital parking lot), so even though I have visited Texarkana twice since I lived there, I had not seen the interior of this church since 1942. But as soon as I saw the photograph, I experienced a rush of recognition, even though the photograph itself was made much earlier than 1942. I can actually remember myself sitting in one of the pews, singing the hymn Brighten the Corner Where You Are! I don't think I'm making that up.

I found the photo in the archive of the Organ Historical Society (OHS) which I think used to be located in Harrisville, NH. (Actually - no. I'm confusing it with the Organ Clearinghouse which was formerly based in Harrisville, now in NYC. The OHS used to be in Richmond, VA and now is based in Villanova, PA.) It has an online archive of U.S. pipe organs of all makes and ages and from all over the country. I used to be on the Board of Directors of the Estey Organ Museum in Brattleboro (home of the Estey Organ Co.), and that brought me into awareness of the OHS. So the photo is actually of the Henry Pilcher Organ, Opus 1180.5 (1924), but of course it also shows much of the interior. What you see in the photo is technically called the organ case, i.e., the pipes that are exposed to view, and which usually are not working pipes, i.e., they make no sound. All the working pipes are behind the pipes you can see. The organ console where the organist sits is where the woman is standing in the photo. The organist's name when my father was there was Cozia Case (sort of a coincidental last name!).