New Home Organ for Eugene Author

User reviews of William Sullivan’s books on amazon.com routinely express astonishment that he’s found time to hike all the routes he describes. Such a peripatetic individual would seem an unlikely customer for a residence organ, but for Sullivan having a small pipe organ for practice and occasional entertaining has been a lifelong dream.

Better-than-expected book sales provided the means, a kitchen expansion yielded a space that had been the dining room, and in November 2002 the instrument was commissioned from Bond Organ Builders, Inc. In November 2004 an open house at the Bond shop introduced the completed organ; installation at Sullivan’s Eugene residence took place shortly thereafter.

Roberta Bond’s visual design, in Arts and Crafts style, has been executed in quarter-sawn white oak, with inlays of boxwood, pear, ebony and mother-of-pearl by master woodworker John Stump. Twenty-nine pipes of the 4’ Principal, of 28% tin, make up the display. Stop knob faces and the builder’s nameplate are engraved in a typeface by Frank Lloyd Wright.

Mechanically the organ is similar to Bond’s larger two-manual instruments, employing suspended key action and providing the customary couplers. A first for the Bond shop was the use of a computer-driven router to mill the toeboards for the slider chest.

As befits an organ for a hiker, the instrument is carefully packed. The manual 8’ flutes share sixteen pipes in the bass and the windchest channels are for the most part the width of the keys to minimize rollerboards and other conveyances. Though the organ’s intended use did not require an independent pedal stop, the compact layout left enough room (theoretically, at least) for a 16’ Sub Bass. In May 2005 this final stop was ordered. Thirty wood pipes were constructed in the Bond shop and then fitted on site this past October. When the ventil stop action is engaged, a central action box behind the pedal keys feeds wind to pipes in four different locations within the case, including the underside of the roof.

Specifications and More Photos>

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A fifth-generation Oregonian, William L. Sullivan has written ten books about the state, including Hiking Oregon's History, a series of 100 Hikes guide books, and a historical novel. His journal of a 1000-mile trek across Oregon, Listening for Coyote, was a finalist for the Oregon Book Award in creative non-fiction. Sullivan lives with his wife Janell Sorensen in Eugene, promotes libraries statewide, and writes an "Oregon Trails" column for the Eugene Register-Guard.  Each summer he and his wife move to the log cabin they built by hand along a roadless river in Oregon's Coast Range.