Highway Tabernacle Church
Philadelphia, PA

The firm of Hilborne L. Roosevelt built their Opus 148 for what is now Highway Tabernacle Church in their Philadelphia shops in 1884. It remained virtually untouched in its original location for another 102 years until being restored by Patrick J. Murphy in 1986. What makes this story truly remarkable is that on the night of Ausust 21, 1986 the church was all but destroyed by fire. The manual pipes had all been removed and stored in the adjoining parish hall and the reservoir had been removed to a hallway to be sent out of releathering when the fire hit. The metal facade pipes, still in place, were damaged beyound repair as were a number of the wooden bourdon pipes in the facade to the sides of the metal pipes. Recycled Bourdon pipes from Roosevelt Opus 100, 1883, were located to replace the damaged ones. A. R. Schopp's constructed new metal facade pipes drawings to match the ones destroyed in the fire. The windchests were re-tabled and repaired and the fire-damaged action restored. The result is an organ that is much as Hilborne Roosevelt left it in 1884. A phoenix organ indeed! All of this along with a meticulous 1.5 million dollar rebuilding and restoration of the church itself showcase this as a fine example of 19th Century Philadelphia organbuilding.

An Interesting feature of this instrument is the fact that notes 1-12 of the 8' Dulciana are borrowed from the 8' Doppel Flote by grooving inside the toe boards. In a similar fashion, the bottom octave of the 8' Dolce share a bass with the 8' Stopped Diapason.

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