Great division (1995)
Casavant Frères opus 301 (1907) of four manuals was built for Grace Church, at the corner of Ellice Avenue and Notre Dame Avenue in the heart of Winnipeg, Manitoba, "Mother Church of Methodism in the West", to replace a three-manual, 34-stop organ installed by R.S. Williams & Son, Oshawa ON, in 1894. Following a fire which damaged the Great division, Casavant altered the design and rebuilt it as opus 696 (1917).
Enter one Stuart A. Kolbinson, a farmer from western Saskatchewan. In 1942, he had graduated from St. Thomas Moore College, University of Saskatchewan, with a BA in history and music, then had spent a winter working with organ builder C. Franklin Legge of Toronto. He spent a few years farming with his father, then in 1948 bought a farm of his own, and in 1951 met and married his wife Mary.
Fateful day 1: in 1952, Stuart and Mary were attending a hockey game in Saskatoon, when a pipe band came onto the ice between periods. Stuart was thrilled by the sound, and immediately took up the highland pipes, soon becoming proficient in both military piping and in Piobaireachd. Asked to form a pipe band for D Company, S.L.I., he started rounding up and training friends and relatives, and was soon Pipe Major of the 2nd North Saskatchewan Regiment Pipe Band.
Fateful day 2: during the summer of 1955, Stuart and his band were attending the Army Band School in Winnipeg, and one evening Stuart wandered into Grace Church and asked if he might try the organ. In reply, the custodian asked if he would like to buy it! The wealthy parishoners had migrated to churches in the suburbs, and a developer had acquired the site. Opportunity was definitely knocking, so Stuart bought the organ, dismantled it, packed it into boxcars and shipped it home to Kindersley. The church was demolished in 1957. (A check of satellite imagery shows that the site continues to thrive as a parking lot.)
The crated organ had to wait in the hayloft of his barn until he had constructed a suitable music room on the farm. Such an addition to the farmhouse was completed in 1960, of about 2000 square feet with a 20 foot ceiling and several floor to ceiling windows. Stuart re-erected the organ, and people came from far and wide to see and to play this wonder, a four-manual pipe organ out in the middle of the prairies. During this decade, Stuart also acquired and restored a 1910 Case steam engine and thresher such as he had used with his father and his uncles, and obtained his 3rd Class Steam Engineer's ticket so that he could take the engine on parade. He also assembled a collection of bells from schools and churches which were to be demolished. (One is reminded of the displaced 4-manual E.M. Skinner opus 265 (1916) in the Opera House of Alpenrose Dairy, Portland Oregon, and the collection of mechanical musical instruments and antique cars there.)
In 1971, Stuart had had enough of Saskatchewan winters, so he packed up his family and moved to Victoria on Vancouver Island. A music room was soon added to their new home, and the organ was again packed into box cars, shipped, and re-installed. A major modification at this point was that the Solo was to become a Positiv division, so the Solo pipes were left in storage on the farm. (These ranks subsequently "went missing".) People continued to visit the organ from far and wide, now situated in a fashionable neighbourhood of British Columbia's capital city.
Stuart made a number of tonal alterations to the organ over the years, many in consultation with the folks at Casavant Frères. Indeed, they supplied several new ranks, including the only 32' reed in town. In the mid 1990's, Stuart commissioned a new console for the 'old girl' and ordered up the latest in microprocessor-based multiplexed control gear to go in it (photo at right). This was chiefly to replace the by then very primitive and troublesome Devtronix combination action which he had had installed in the old console in the early 1980's.
Stuart hosted many a party and late night soirée in his music room, the organ bringing joy and amazement to countless friends and visitors, organists and non-organists alike. He always marvelled at the skill of the long-dead hands which had built it, and how it had continued to function so well after so long. Sadly, in 2000 Stuart too laid down his tools for the last time.
Alas, none of his family was interested in playing the organ. Early in 2007, the writer had agreed to do some tuning in preparation for the visit of a potential purchaser, but a couple of days before the date that had been set, there was a severe rainstorm. Because of root-clogged perimeter drains, the lower parts of the organ, particularly the pedal offset chests, the wind reservoir for the Swell, Choir and Positiv divisons and blower had been submerged. Fungi were growing on some wooden and leathern parts. The organ could not have been made operable without major repairs; there was nothing to be done but disconnect the electrical supply.
In 2009, Grant Smalley Pipe Organs salvaged what parts they could use, the family sold the property, and the new owner demolished the house.
Ref: Hartman, James The Organ in Manitoba: The Instruments, the Builders, the Players, and the Critics, University of Manitoba