Organist Paul Wharram peeks into the organ chamber at Church of the Epiphany in Kingsville Tuesday. A new organ console is being installed at the historic church today. (Sarah Sacheli/The Windsor Star)
By Sarah Sacheli, The Windsor Star September 20, 2012
William A . Potter would be proud.
The organ builder scratched his name into the pipes he installed at Kingsville’s Church of the Epiphany back in 1903. To make sure his name would not be lost to history, he again signed pipes when he returned in 1949 to do more work on the organ, adding the notation that he was 84 at the time.
Today, the church organ is undergoing a massive transformation. A third rank of pipes is being added and a refurbished console salvaged from a closed United church in London, Ont. is being installed.
Potter’s pipes will be preserved. “The thing with organs is they can live for hundreds and hundreds of years with regular maintenance,” said Paul Wharram, Epiphany’s organist.
The church’s organ was in dire need of repair, said Wharram, who has been Epiphany’s organist since December 2011. The congregation launched a fundraising campaign in May to have the donated console updated with a computerized sound module. The wooden cabinet will be refinished to look like the rest of the historic church.
“It’s as if it were meant to be,” said Wharram, explaining the new console will fit perfectly into the pit where the old one stood.
The church, which boasts 400 parishioners, raised $69,000, surpassing the $65,000 fundraising goal.
The new organ will be capable of thousands of different sounds. With the push of a button, Wharram will be able to make it sound like the sanctuary is full of harps one minute, or drums and a piano the next. The sound will be projected through 967 pipes.
Church volunteers dismantled the old console, removing from it every bit of wood that could be reused for the new organ. Wharram took pictures, as what was left of the old console was left curbside on its way to landfill.
Every step of the project has been documented in photographs. A further testament to how times have changed since Potter’s days, the organ project has its own Facebook page, called Epiphany’s Pipes.
Church of the Epiphany datea back to the area’s earliest pioneers. Its predecessor church, built in 1852 and called St. John’s, replaced a log hut in the woods. The church building, with its tower and stained glass windows, was built in 1891.
Behind the Main Street West church is a cemetery where the town’s namesake, Col. James King, is buried.
The dedication ceremony for the new organ was held Sept. 23.