Christ Episcopal Church

Harlan, Kentucky (1995)

This one manual organ was built by Henry Pilcher’s Sons in 1889 for St. John’s Church, Lexington, Kentucky. It was poorly installed at Christ Church in the 1930’s, and never worked very well. In the mid-1940’s, the entire console and pedalboard were literally sawn off and thrown away. Although Christ Church had been told by several organ builders that the organ was unrestorable, B.Rule & Company was able to restore the organ completely and to enlarge it by one stop.

A lovely J.W. Steere & Son console was obtained through the Organ Clearing House, and it fit beautifully into the Pilcher case. The scaling is generous and the voicing is bold, making the instrument quite powerful and able to accompany congregational singing in this small sanctuary with ease.

The dedication was played on May 21, 1995 by Professor John Brock, professor of organ at the University of Tennessee.