The Felgemaker Organ Company was a manufacturer of pipe organs based out of Erie, Pennsylvania in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. It was founded in Buffalo, New York but relocated to Erie, PA. In 1872, the company was known as the Derrick and Felgemaker Pipe Organ Company. During the 1870s, the company employed over 55 workers and had $75,000 worth of capital. The firm produced between 15 to 20 organs per week. Specialties of the company included church organs and portable pipe organs for small churches, schools and residential parlors. By 1878 the company was renamed as the A.B. Felgemaker Company, relocating the factory to larger facilities in 1888 and 1890. At the invitation of Mr. Felgemaker, German organ maker Anton Gottfried moved to Erie in 1894, where he leased space from the Felgemaker plant. The A.B. Felgemaker Company remained in business until 1917. Several workers from the Felgemaker Company, including Gottfried, joined to form the Organ Supply Industries, Inc. in Erie which is today the largest and most comprehensive pipe organ manufacturer and supply house. The company produced organs until 1918, when it ceased operations. The company's service agreements and pending contracts were then assumed by the Tellers-Kent Organ Company. Organs produced by this company are still in use at St. John the Baptist Catholic Church, Canton, Ohio, Lawrence University, Appleton Wisconsin, St. John's Lutheran Church, Erie, Pennsylvania, Crawford Memorial United Methodist Church, Bronx, New York, Trinity Episcopal Church, Iowa City, Iowa, St. John's Episcopal Church, Canandaigua, New York, First Congregational Church, St. Johns, Michigan, and First Christian Church (Disciples of Christ), Elizabeth City, North Carolina.
Famous quotes containing the words organ and/or company:
“And this mighty master of the organ of language, who knew its every stop and pipe, who could awaken at will the thin silver tones of its slenderest reeds or the solemn cadence of its deepest thunder, who could make it sing like a flute or roar like a cataract, he was born into a country without literature.”
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—Joan Didion (b. 1934)