A Short History of the

Brombaugh Organ

St. James Church entered into contract with the John Brombaugh Organ Builders, Middletown, Ohio in 1969.  The organ was installed and voiced in the Summer of 1971 – total price $14,800! The congregation heard it for the first time on Pentecost.  As John Brombaugh was in Holland that Summer studying Dutch Renaissance organ construction, the final voicing was completed by George Taylor, his original partner. The organ’s placement was on the South wall of the chancel, near where the lectern is now located, with the organist facing the wall. When the sanctuary and chancel were remodeled around 1980, the organ was completed and moved to its present position behind the altar and reredos.  When it was originally constructed, there was room left in the case for the addition of two mutation stops. This addition was made possible by an estate settlement bequest to St. James upon the death of a parishioner in 1980. The work was done by Taylor/Boody Pipe Organ Builders, as John Brombaugh had in the meantime moved his shop to Eugene Oregon.  George Taylor had left the original firm and set up his own shop in Staunton, Virginia, retaining John Boody. The Taylor/Boody firm continues to this day to service the St. James organ.

About the Organ

• The pipes are from a firm in Holland
• The case is of fumed white oak
• The casework design in the front of the pipes represents the flames of the Holy Spirit and were carved in the Brombaugh shop
• The keys are of ebony and rosewood
• Everything except the pipes was handmade in the Brombaugh shop in Middletown
• The voicing of the organ is that of the Dutch High Renaissance
• Tuning of the organ is Werckmeister II

At the time the organ was built, the firm owned by John Brombaugh was a group of young men literally "on fire" with the excitement of building pipe organs based on the centuries old construction and voicing principles of the best historic European organs. The St. James organ is the third one this firm built, and the second one in Ohio (one in Oberlin was the first.) Both the Brombaugh and the Tayler/Boody firms have gone on to become leaders in the pipe organ construction business and have built outstanding organs all over the world.