How the Organ Business Changed the City
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O Figure 6: Invitation to 1925 Golden Anniversary Gala. From papers of Peter Moller Daniels. n December 8th, 1925, Moller celebrated 50 years in the organ making business with a Golden Anniversary celebration and dinner at his factory. The highlight of the evening was the gala opening of the factory’s new erecting room. This new space spanned the area over the North Avenue right-of-way that crossed Prospect Hill. North Avenue ended at Prospect Street, but the right-of-way had been extended over Prospect Hill and to the west in case any more road building would occur. When Moller received the deed to Prospect Hill and built his factory, any plans to extend the road were abandoned. The new erecting room essentially filled in space between two pre-existing walls and projected a new façade along the now completed eastern wall of the factory. While the earlier factory walls that faced east were clad in simple, utilitarian brickwork, the wall of the new erecting room took a new aesthetic approach. This carefully composed façade shows how Moller wanted to project a certain image of his company to the people of Hagerstown and how he used the architecture of his factory to accomplish this. With the completion of the new erecting room in 1925, the eastern façade of the factory gained a more composed, ordered look. The eastern wall of the erecting room faced directly onto North Avenue; it is easily seen from a number of vantage points along North Avenue as you approach the factory from the east. The erecting room addition is 3 and a half stories high, with a gabled roof and skylight. While the façade is done in brick, to be consistent with the older additions, the center of the new addition has a large, glass w Figure 7: Eastern Façade of Moller Organ Factory. Personal photograph. indow that is done in a rounded, arch-like shape. This large window and the pointed gable roof are reminiscent of the vaulted roofs and large stained glass windows prevalent in ecclesiastical architecture. While this type of design would seem to be inconsistently used in a mere factory building, its use here would suggest that Moller wanted to project an image of his factory that went beyond industrial and utilitarian imagery. The church-like impression created by this façade makes a direct reference to the type of product Moller was creating; the organs were built primarily for use in churches, synagogues, and other houses of worship around the world. The new façade also had utilitarian purposes on the interior as well. Since it was larger than the older erecting room, Moller used this new space to exhibit a large organ for visitors. In this way, the space became an extension of Moller’s public side in the interior as well as the exterior of the building. During its heyday, the company used to hire out teenagers from the town to give tours during the summer months. The new erecting room, with its 3-story demonstration organ, was the highlight of the tour.6 In addition to serving as a showcase space, the interior allowed the organ assemblers to have access to light for most of the day through the large eastern window and skylight. Today, the Eastern Organ Pipe Company is still using this space for assembly and shipment. While the Moller Company itself no longer exists and the majority of the factory building is unoccupied, anybody who approaches the site from North Avenue sees the eastern façade, and intuitively knows that something related to the church occurred at this site. The design of the new erecting room façade, and the way it faces directly onto North Avenue created powerful imagery that can still be read today, even though pipe organs are no longer being made at the factory. Moller believed that the craft of organ building had reverent qualities to it, and that the construction of a pipe organ was a noble and moral activity. Moller projected this image of his work and his company onto the public façade of his building, allowing visitors today the opportunity to see the religious heritage of the organ building craft in the architecture of the factory itself.   Download 18.06 Mb. Share with your friends:
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