Ernest M. Skinner - Later Years

Later Years

In 1936 Skinner was able to form Ernest M. Skinner and Son and produced one final, spectacular organ for Washington National Cathedral that opened in the fall of 1938 to wide national acclaim. Financial troubles forced the company to file for bankruptcy on October 1, 1941, then fire burned the Methuen Shop to the ground on June 17, 1943.

Skinner was a prolific writer with numerous letters to the editors of The Diapason and The American Organist appearing in those publications from the 1940s onward wherein he defended his tonal ideals and made an attempt to regain lost territory on the American musical landscape. From the 1940s onward, Skinner saw many of his best organs rebuilt beyond recognition while others were thrown out wholesale in the name of musical progress. Even the three "Landmark Organs" mentioned in the previous section were subject to this trend with modifications to the Chicago organ being carried out only a few years after its completion.

Following the death of his wife Mabel in 1951, he entered a downward spiral from which he never recovered. The tonal revision of his earlier organs at St. John the Divine, NYC (op. 150, 1911), St. Thomas, NYC (op. 205, 1913) and his final large organ built for the National Cathedral all fell subject to this trend by the mid-'50s, further complicating his emotional state as he saw his life's work (and by extension, himself) gradually going extinct.

The final years of Mr. Skinner's life found him living in relative obscurity, having far outlived most of his contemporaries.

He passed during the night of November 26–27, 1960, at the age of 94, at the family home.

He is buried in Bethel, Maine.