The Dawn Theater’s pipe organ is being restored. Courtesy | Facebook
The 1925 theater organ originally installed in the Dawn Theater is on track to be fully restored and reinstalled this summer.
According to John Orensma, a member of the Friends of the Dawn Theater, the Wurlitzer theater organ was originally designed to accompany silent movies. In addition to organ pipes, it has sleigh bells, a snare drum, a car horn, hoofbeats, a duck quack and many other sound effects.
The theater organ was originally installed in the dawn in 1925 by former owner W.S. Butterfield, according to the Union City Society For Historic Preservation’s Facebook page. It cost $10,000 for the original installation.
It will cost around $240,000 for the organ restoration and the necessary construction work, said Ron Scholl, a member of the Friends of the Dawn Theater. They still need to raise around $80,000 to complete the project.
“There’s only about thirteen Wurlitzer pipe organs in the world that are still intact — meaning even though some of them aren’t playing, they haven’t been rebuilt or modified or ruined — so our little organ is really quite special, even on the national or world scene, in terms of theater organs,” said John Ourensma, who joined the Friends of the Dawn Theater after becoming involved in the organ project.
According to its Facebook page, Friends of the Dawn Theater is a local community group that facilitates support and programs for the theater.
The organ is currently being restored in the studio of J.L. Weiler in Chicago, where it is having its leather replaced, its console rebuilt, and its pipes straightened. The wooden components will also be refurbished.
“It’s not like they’re going to look brand new, but they’re all going to be refurbished enough that things look pretty spiffy and bright again,” Ourensma said.
According to Mary Wolfram, also a member of the group, a digital playback system installed on the refurbished organ will give it a function similar to a player piano. When an organist plays, electrical impulses tell different parts of the organ what to do. The computer will be able to record those impulses and then use them to tell the organ to play the song by itself.
“With a couple of keystrokes you can fire up the organ, and it will play on its own,” Scholl said.
Wolfram said they hope to show silent movies at the theater again as well as host organ concerts. She said they also hope to become a destination for organ tourism.
“The college has these beautiful two new beautiful organs in Christ Chapel, and there’s an organ museum in Homer, which is about 20 minutes up the road from here. So we could become an organ destination kind of thing,” Wolfram said.
Meanwhile, the building must be renovated to accommodate the organ pipes on either side of the stage as well as a blower and wind line in the basement.
Wolfram said that people who are interested in donating can contact the Friends of the Dawn Theater on Facebook or at 810-844-1396.