Cover feature: Schoenstein & Co. Opus 183
Schoenstein & Co. Organ Builders, Benicia, California; Saint Michael’s Abbey, Silverado, California
Treasure in the hills: French Romantic organs in a silver boomtown
When searching for sung daily offices, a French-style abbey church, and two French Romantic organs, one might look in Europe, but not in Silverado, California. The city and its namesake canyon, located east of Los Angeles in the Santa Ana range, hold scenery found in old Western films: dusty mountainsides that turn pink at dusk, tumbleweed blowing across the winding two-lane road, a creek with little more than eight ounces of water in its bed, old mine shafts from the silver boom.
