Sts. Peter & Paul

Clients / Projects

Reading, OH

1896 G. Grimm & Sons

Starting Fall 2019, we have undertaken several projects on this lovely Victorian tracker, which is Opus 2 of Gallus Grimm & Sons. 1895 marked the end of the Koehnken & Grimm dynasty, with Johann Koenhken’s retirement from the notable Cincinnati firm. Gallus continued for just one year and both he and Koehnken died in 1897.

The instrument at Sts. Peter & Paul is remarkably intact, especially noteworthy considering it has been rebuilt twice, once by Kimball in the 1930’s and then again in the 1980s. The latter effort restored genuine Kohnken & Grimm pipework to the instrument, which had been replaced in the 30’s rebuild. The organ has a strong yet sweet voice in the beautiful acoustical environment of Sts. Peter & Paul.

We have been tasked mainly with re-racking unstable pipework in the Swell, and cleaning the divisions. The console action has been rebuilt to increase stability, especially in the coupling action. We will also be replacing the under-sized regulator in the organ with a pair of double-rise regulators, which will more closely mimic the effect of the original winding system, now removed.