Books › Ayars, Contributions to the Art of Music in America by the Music Industries of Boston (1937) — the Squier, Farley, Rettberg, Rockwell and Elias Howe matter, 1937 › scan 282
Scan 282
Ayars, Contributions to the Art of Music in America by the Music Industries of Boston (1937) — the Squier, Farley, Rettberg, Rockwell and Elias Howe matter, 1937
33 lines. Read by computer on 27 September 2026. Printed page 256. See the scan on archive.org.
1III. Other Boston Pipe Organ Builders—Period 1830-1910 (Continued)
3Addresses from Boston Business Directories
5Cor. 5th & [address hidden], Cambridge, Mass.
7GEORGE STEVENS 5
8Business started as Stevens & Gayetty and acquired the business of William Goodrich after his death, at least as early as 1838.
9When Mr. Stevens was Mayor of Cambridge for 2 years his brother, Wm., took his place in managing the company (about 1855).
10Was one of the early organ builders. Built some 800 small church organs, tracker action, including some 27 in Lowell. One organ there lasted 70 years showing its good materials. His voicing, however, was rather poor. He built the organ in the Stoneham, Mass., Congregational church, rebuilt with electrical action. St. Anne's, Lowell, Mass., built in 1855, was noted because this was the first organ built by this company in which zinc was used in the big bass pipes. His largest organ was in a Roman Catholic Church in North Cambridge.
12STEVENS & JEWETT; WM. STEVENS; STEVENS & JEWETT;
131855 became 1856-1858 1860-1862 again
151863-64—[address hidden]
161865-67—North [address hidden]
17cor. Cambridge
181868—[address hidden] cor. Cambridge
191869-72—No. Grove cor. Cambridge
211855-58—[address hidden]
221860—[address hidden]
231863-64—[address hidden]
241865-67—North [address hidden]
25cor. Cambridge
261868—[address hidden] cor. Cambridge
271869-72—No. Grove cor. Cambridge
29JAMES E. TREAT & CO. 5
301887-1920. Bought around 1905 by Edward F. Searles and reorganized as Methuen Organ Co.
31Mr. Treat was reed voicer for the Hutchings company and C. T. Harris 7 was flue voicer.
32Mr. Treat was eccentric, for example, the organ he built in Searles' home near Lenox had black naturals and white sharps in the pedal board. He rebuilt the organ in Dr. Webb's Church, Boston, built organs in Grace Episcopal and St. Paul's Methodist in Lawrence, and Great Barrington House, Great Barrington, Mass. One of his largest was in Grace Church, San Francisco, 3 manuals, 50+ stops of such fine workmanship that it took five years to build. It was destroyed by the earthquake and fire. Mr. Searles often gave the difference between the cost and what the churches could pay.
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