Austin Organ Company, Opus 500 (1915) 117 Ranks.

Click here to view original specifications.

Click here to view revised, current specifications.

This heroic organ was built for the Panama-Pacific Exposition Auditorium. It was renovated with a new console in 1963, and damaged in the earthquake of 1989. It was removed to Austin for renovation in 1991. The organ was returned to storage in San Francisco in 1996, and has remained in storage since.

The City of San Francisco will give the organ without charge to a new owner with the stipulation that it must remain intact and historically whole. (Organ Clearing House finder’s fee will apply.) This is an extraordinary opportunity for a large church, concert hall, or civic auditorium.

The original builder’s dimension drawings are available.

Organist Timothy Tikker has offered this historical commentary about this important instrument:

Timothy Tikker

The organ was built for the Festival Hall of the 1915 Panama Pan-Pacific Exposition (the photo posted here is of the Festival Hall installation; in its later home the façade was extended to either side with dummy pipes). Camille Saint-Saëns was a featured guest artist, conducting his Third Symphony, as well as a work of his own, commissioned for the occasion: "Hail, California!" Edwin Lemare was the main organist for the Expo, and continued as SF Municipal Organist for some years after. One unusual characteristic of the organ is that the Pedal is almost completely independent and not unified, which may well be due to Lemare's influence (he referred to unified Pedal divisions, which EM Skinner called "augmented," as "diminished Pedals"). After the fair the organ was relocated to the newly-built Civic Auditorium near City Hall, for which Lemare insisted that Austin perform extensive revoicing as well as some tonal changes. There it was used for many events over the years, including the American première of Marcel Dupré's Symphony in G minor for organ and orchestra, the composer as soloist. Austin replaced the console in 1963. I heard my organ teacher Ludwig Altman -- then Municipal Organist -- perform the Poulenc Concerto there, Arthur Fiedler conducting, in 1974. The SF AGO Chapter visited the organ in 1981, and I had the opportunity along with other members to play it briefly then. The 1989 Loma Prieta earthquake shattered a plaster wall behind the organ, severely damaging the instrument, especially the un-enclosed divisions. The organ is immense: 117 ranks, including three full-length 32' voices, two of them completely independent; wind pressures are 10", 15" and 25". The chests are of the "walk-in" type: the enclosed space under the chests is tall enough for an organ technician literally to walk into, after passing through an air-lock entrance, bringing him to direct access to the underside of the toe boards and all the chest action, this space all filled with pressured air for the pipes!