Historical societies house many unique items from the past. Among those items at the Athol Historical Society is a very special pipe organ built in 1847 by E.&G.G. Hook Co. in Boston and installed in 1848 in the Town Meetinghouse/Unitarian Church, which now serves as the Athol Historical Society building. The Athol organ is the 83rd organ built by the company, Susannah Whipps, President of the Athol Historical Society, said. The organ is also known as Opus 83 because, according to Bynum Petty, archivist at the Organ Historical Society, organ builders — like composers — signed their organs with opus numbers.
The Hook Company has a history all of its own, which led it to becoming one of the finest organ companies in the country in the 1800s, according to the Athol Historical Society. It began when two brothers, Elias and George G. Hook, who were the sons of a cabinet maker in Salem, apprenticed under a well-known Boston organ builder, William Goodrich. In 1827, the two brothers returned to Salem and started their own organ company. Their business continued to grow and in 1831 the brothers moved their company to Boston, according to information from the Athol Historical Society.
“Hook dominated the market during their existence,” according to Petty. “From the 1840s forward, organs were not in the best place artistically. Boston really was the center of the musical artistic community at that time and not just for organs. The city was the place of the Boston Symphony and Symphony Hall. Boston was the musical hub of the country. It attracted a lot of talent. The Hook company was able to hire a lot of talented people. What was more important about the Hook Company is they in turn spawned a whole new school of organ building. Many organ builders of the early 20th century came out of the Hooks and Hastings Workshop.”
The Industrial Revolution also benefited the company, Petty said. “The Hook Company built high quality organs and capitalized on the industrial revolution. At the time, steam-powered machinery had been introduced and the organs were built more rapidly by using the technology of the day,” Petty said.
Over the next 40 years the brother’s reputation grew, as they produced 600 instruments. In 1872, Francis Hastings joined the partnership and in 1881 the company was renamed the Hook and Hastings Co. When the company closed in 1936, they had produced more than 2,500 instruments, according to information from the Athol Historical Society.
Famous Hook organs in the Boston area include organs built for the Holy Cross Cathedral in 1875, one of the largest the company ever produced, the Church of the Holy Trinity in 1877, Church of the Immaculate Conception in 1863, First Church Christ Scientist Mother Church and for the Harvard Chapel in 1873, which was replaced eventually by another organ built by C.B. Fiske. according to Petty.
In the early 1970s, restorations were made to the Athol organ. Among these renovations, according to Whipps, was the installation of an electric blower which replaced the hand pump that is still in the back of the organ. The renovations were funded through donations of a group of historical society members, George Engel, Joseph Fay, Charles Lee, Wallace Lord, Luna Richardson, Charles Tyler, Marshall Waterman and Alice Starrett Waterman, according to the information from the society.
In a ceremony in 2015, the Athol Historical Society received a citation from the Organ Historical Society “in acknowledgement of the organ’s importance as a historic instrument worthy of preservation,” the Athol Historical Society website states. “We are honored to have this important instrument as part of our collection. It’s always special to hear it played,” Whipps said. No concerts are planned with the organ at this time.
The Organ Historical Society began in 1956 at a meeting of American Guild Organists in New York City, when a group of 10 people attending the conference got together and decided to see the 19th-century organs in New York City. “The first door they knocked on, a housekeeper answered and asked who was calling and one of the group members blurted out, “The Organ Historical Society.” In 1961, the Organ Historical Society Inc became a nonprofit.
Tthe Athol Historical Society is closed for the season. The society has been closed throughout the 2020 and 2021 seasons due to COVID. The society hopes to reopen in the Spring of 2022. More information on the historical society can be found at www.atholhistoricalsociety.weebly.com. More information about the Organ Historical Society can be found at www.organhistoricalsociety.org
Carla Charter is a freelance writer from Phillipston who focuses on the history of the North Quabbin area. She welcomes your story ideas. Contact her at cjfreelancewriter@earthlink.net.