It was May of 2023 and as I have done many times before and many times since, I was driving the back roads of the Shenandoah Valley of Virginia, primarily in Augusta County, but sometimes in Rockingham County to the north or Rockbridge County to the south.
    On this day in May as I traveled west of Staunton in Augusta County, I happened upon a church with an interesting and historic look. Hebron Presbyterian Church was founded in 1746 and includes the old cemetery adjacent to the church and the newer burial grounds across Hebron Road.

Hebron Presbyterian ChurchView of the new cemetery and church and old cemetery to its' right. Hebron Presbyterian Church with old cemetery to its right and the new cemetery across the road.

   The lady volunteer in the office told me some of the history of the church including that somewhere in the old cemetery were the remains of several revolutionary soldiers. The Civil War left many marks on the Valley of Virginia, but brushes with 1776 are much less common.

   Describing the features of the sanctuary, my host mentioned that the church organ had been built in the organ factory across the road, and thus the seed was planted for this story of Taylor and Boody Organ Builders and a church organ they were in the process building.

   For George Taylor and John Boody it began with both working for an organ builder in Middletown, Ohio.  Boody had been apprenticed to an organ builder in Massachusetts and Taylor had previously received a grant to study with an organ builder in Germany. When their boss decided to move the company to the West Coast, Taylor and Boody decided to stay behind. In Ohio they would build their first organ and construct an addition to a backyard barn large enough to accommodate future projects.

Taylor & Boody - The Early DaysUsed by permission.

   Taylor and Boody in Ohio. Photo used by permission.

    While the partnership was destined to last for decades, the Ohio location was not. It took only two years for a move from Ohio to Virginia to come about. Taylor had graduated from Washington and Lee University in Lexington, Virginia, so he was familiar with the Shenandoah Valley. He had discovered an old elementary through high school building long abandoned by the school system in Augusta County, north of Lexington. Used at the time by a contractor for storage, the old school had a large gymnasium with a ceiling high enough to make their work on large organs practical. It would also allow them to work on more than one project at a time.

Opus 85 in May 2024The mostly finished organ is demonstrated for visitors to an open house. This is the old schools gym area that can accommodate large instruments like "85".

 The open house for the mostly finished Opus 85 showing the gym area of the old school large enough to accommodate larger organ commissions. - May 2024

   The success of their business brought the instruments they created to places across the USA and to foreign locales like Japan, Hong Kong and England. They named their creations like musical compositions – Opus with an attached number.

Sketch of how a finished Opus 85 would look in the sanctuary of the New Bern, NC church.

 Early drawing of how Opus 85 would look in the balcony of Christ Episcopal Church.

   Their largest project when I walked in their doors that May was Opus 85 scheduled for placement at Christ Episcopal Church in New Bern, North Carolina. That was 2023, but the beginnings of Opus 85, began at Christ Church in New Bern much earlier.

Christ Episcopal ChurchView of the church in July of 2024.

Christ Church - July 2024

   When Jean Reichenbach joined the congregation of Christ Church in 2000, she brought with her a memory of Taylor and Boody Organ Builders. Jean had been a student at DePauw University in Indiana. There she heard and admired the sound of Taylor and Boody’s first organ – Opus 1.

   Almost twenty years later Christ Church was confronting repair costs for their old organ, which had been in place since 1968. Its sound and condition prompted calls to replace it rather than repair it. Thus began a series of studies – financial feasibility, could the congregation support the cost… an acoustical study to make sure the sanctuary could support the sound and then engineering to find out if the church balcony could support the weight of the new organ. Opus 85 was a bigger instrument. The old organ had 1,397 pipes and 85 has 1,854.

   The church's organ committee asked three companies for bids, and as part of their work visited Taylor and Boody in Virginia. That was late in the year 2018.

   Christ Episcopal's members decided to combine several projects: the organ, plus renovations to the floor, ceiling, balcony and the pews of the church. The total price tag was around 1.4 million dollars.

   The following images from 2023 and 2024 trace some of the construction steps:

Joel VanderZee works on the keyboards for the New Bern organ.No longer made of ivory, keys are now fashioned from cow bones.

Joel VanderZee works on the keyboard for "85". Keys are no longer made of ivory, but rather cow bone.    

Andy Rhodes in the wood working area of Taylor and Boody

Andy Rhodes works the wood that will be part of the organ.

Kelley BlantonMaking the initial cuts on the decorative woodwork of "85".

Kelley Blanton makes some of the first rough cuts of the wood designs on Opus 85.

Workshop room for the s pipes.

The metal fabrication room in the old school building where the organs pipes are created.

B J Regi preparing metal for the pipes.

B J Regi works the metal for one of the 1,800 plus pipes.

Some of the over 1,800 pipes for Opus 85.Pipes awaiting the next finishing steps.

The metal pipe tubes await the next step.

Penny the cat oversees the work in the pipe area.In the background Robbie Lawson (left) and B J Regi (far right).

Penny the cat supervises the work in the fabrication room. In the background on the left is Robbie Lawson and to the back right is B J Regi.

Main room of Taylor and BoodyThe body of the organ starts to come together.

The cabinet for "85" begins to take shape in the gym area. June 2023.

The organ parts are loaded into rental trucksMay 30, 2024. Robbie Lawson and Sean Dye pack a rental truck for the drive to New Bern.

After Memorial Day in 2024, the move of the organ to New Bern begins. Robbie Lawson and Sean Dye load one of the rental trucks for the trip.  

   In June and July of 2024 Taylor and Boody begin the process of installing Opus 85 in Christ Church.

Pipes in the balcony of the church.

Pipes ready for installation and tuning in the balcony of Christ Church - July 2024.  

   It is still possible to do some slight changes to the lengths of the pipes, if necessary. More common is the flattening or sharpening of the pipe ends to achieve the desired pitch.

Tuning instruments for the smaller pipes.Depending on the desired sound, one end or the other is used for changing the pitch.

Different tool sizes allow the pitch of each pipe to be changed.

Sean Dye at the organ in Christ ChurchAs he plays each note, the related pipe is tuned as needed. July 2024.

Sean Dye at the console in the church balcony activates a pipe for fine tuning.

Joel VanderZee behind the organ.While Sean plays the notes, Joel does the pitch adjustment.

Behind the organ, Joel VanderZee uses the tools on each pipe for the fine tuning.

   A regular schedule of tuning will be needed through the years at approximate 10 year intervals.

Organ in the balcony of Christ Church

   View of the church sanctuary in July of 2024.

   The organ was only one of a number of changes the congregation undertook at Christ Church that included work on the ceiling, floor and pews of the New Bern church. The visible pipes have about 80% tin content so they take a shine better. The pipes with more lead content are more hidden from view.

   The team that worked on Opus 85:

Opus 85 in Staunton prior to its journey to New BernLeft to Right: Robbie Lawson, Aaron Reichert, Erik Boody, Emerson Willard, Andy Rhodes, Kelley Blanton, Sean Dye, Joel VanderZee, BJ Regi, Larry Damico and Alex Redmond.

From left to right: Robbie Lawson, Aaron Reichert, Erik Boody, Emerson Willard, Andy Rhodes, Kelley Blanton, Sean Dye, Joel VanderZee, B J Regi, Larry Damico and Alex Redmond.

© Cliff Brane 2023-2024