Earlier this year Stan Hywet Hall & Gardens announced a campaign to raise the necessary funds to restore its extraordinary 1915 Aeolian Organ—the first pipe organ ever installed in a private home in Ohio. The 65,000 square foot Stan Hywet Hall is the former estate of Goodyear Tire & Rubber Company founder F.A. Seiberling and his wife, Gertrude, and remains this country’s finest example of Tudor Revival architecture. The Seiberling’s remarkable organ was built by the Aeolian Company of New York City, a company that reigned supreme in the industry from 1890 until 1931 when it merged with the Skinner Company of Boston. Residential Aeolian organs were designed and built for elegant music rooms in the mansions of the wealthy. Some of these residential organs were double or triple the cost and size of church organs. The largest residential organ installation recorded is that of Longwood Gardens outside Philadelphia. That organ has over 10,000 pipes. In Akron, Ohio, Stan Hywet’s organ boasts 2,670 pipes in 42 ranks located in the walls surrounding the Music Room.
The Aeolian organ was used regularly at Stan Hywet Hall by both professional musicians and family members primarily during the 1920s, 30s and 40s. F.A. and Gertrude Seiberling entertained many prominent business and political leaders in addition to renowned artists and musicians at Stan Hywet. One can imagine the delight that guests such as Thomas and Mina Edison; pianist and composer Percy Grainger; Mrs. Henry Ford; U.S. Presidents Harding, Coolidge, Hoover and Taft; Metropolitan Opera sopranos Rosa Ponselle and Helen Jepson and tenor James Melton; comedian Will Rogers; conductor Leopold Stokowski; composer Ignace Jan Paderewski, actress Shirley Temple and of course the beloved Van Trapp Family Singers would have experienced upon hearing . . . and perhaps even playing, the Aeolian Organ. Seiberling family lore relates F.A. Seiberling’s pleasure in playing the organ rolls while playing the manual stops himself.
The Aeolian organ’s current state of disrepair hinders not only the instrument’s playability and beauty; it inhibits an entirely accurate and compelling interpretation of Stan Hywet’s Music Room, a space often hailed as one of the most beautiful rooms in America and certainly a room richly steeped in northeast Ohio‘s musical heritage.
As of this writing, over 300 “organ donors” have made gifts in excess of $280,000 to our “Adopt-A-Pipe” appeal. We are grateful for this outpouring of interest and support for this effort. The Kulas Foundation of Cleveland has generously pledged the final $25,000 needed for this project.
Our call for support is urgent. If we can raise an additional $200,000 yet this fall, our partners in restoration, the team at the Schantz Organ Company in Orrville, Ohio, can begin to work on the organ during the winter months when Stan Hywet is closed to the public. It would be our privilege to welcome live organ music back to the Manor House during our next season in 2009.
How you can help:
Many of you have embraced this restoration project already—thank you. For a complete listing of organ donors, visit Stan Hywet’s website at www.stanhywet.org and click on “support.” Remember that organ pipes make wonderfully unique gifts for birthdays, anniversaries and other special remembrances. Give your gift on-line or call 330.315.3216 and speak directly with Susan Van Vorst, V.P. Fund Development, for further details about this project.
