Zion Lutheran Church
Spring City, PA

Tannenberg - 1 manual, 6 rank

Zion Lutheran Church in Spring City, PA is the home to one of only nine David Tannenberg Organs left in existence. Therefore, in 1996, The Organ Historical Society cited this significant organ as an Instrument of exceptional historic value and worthy of preservation. We are honored to have been chosen by Zion Lutheran Church to perform this important restoration following the guidelines set by the OHS.

Upon removing the 200 year old bellows leather, an interesting discovery was made. The internal ribs were sized with perfectly preserved newspapers from 1791. The newspapers, which document both local and national events, were retained in the bellows after the restoration. In addition to the careful leathering of the bellows and the reconstruction of the original hand pump winding system, a new modern blower was installed. Hand-planed eastern white pine windtrunks were produced to convey wind to the bellows. These woodworking additions were installed without any physical intrusion, alteration, or permanent attachment to the original wind system.

The R.J. Brunner firm from Lancaster, PA was responsible for the restoration of the windchest and reproduction of a period-style keyboard. This keyboard with ebony naturals and walnut sharps was modeled after the 1802 Tannenburg located in Madison, Virginia.

The original pine casework has been restored to its splendid white appearance through careful sanding and repainting by our staff technicians. New hand-planed eastern white pine was used in order to reproduce the missing back case panels. The restoration also consisted of removing previous alterations such as the 1861 8' Open Diapason which has been reverted to its original 3' Quinte stop. The noted firm of Taylor and Boody provided the 19 reproduction treble pipes to replace those that were discarded during the previous alteration.

The entire keyaction and pipework were restored under the direction of PJM Associate Richard Hamar. Richard's distinguished training in European organ restoration began by earning his journeyman's certificate under the noted builder Rudolf Von Beckerath. When the organ was reinstalled at Zion Lutheran Church this past October, Richard Hamar and Patrick J. Murphy combined forces for the tuning and regulation of this instrument.

The organ dedication took place on October 25th, following a Saturday symposium on the restoration of the instrument. Keeping with the period, Mr. Philip T.D. Cooper, an authority in Pennsylvania German Organ literature, augmented the service with a recital of 17th and 18th century Germanic music. One might have heard this music being played at the time the instrument was constructed.