San Antonio Express-News (Sunday)
Cathedral’s organ grew during planning
We at San Fernando Cathedral are currently undertaking a project to repair and restore a Kilgen pipe organ to its original working condition. We are looking for any piece of historical information, pictures or articles that may shed light on its origins and how the organ looked.
We have also been told that there was at the cathedral at one point in time an elevator that would facilitate reaching the choir loft. Would you know where we can possibly locate pictures of this elevator? Any information you may be able to provide or guidance on where I can search will be greatly appreciated.
Completed in 1755 for our city’s first civilian settlers, San Fernando (covered here March 5, 2022) became a cathedral in 1874 with the establishment of the Diocese (now Archdiocese) of San Antonio.
A major renovation of the cathedral overlooking Main Plaza was undertaken in 1868, supervised by Francois Giraud, architect of the original Ursuline Academy buildings (now Southwest School of Art).
Meanwhile, work on what’s now St. Mark’s Episcopal Church was restarted after the Civil War, and the church at 315 E. Pecan St. was completed in 1875. As it was finished, what is thought to have been the city’s first pipe organ was installed in the front of the church on the left. This was a two-manual (keyboard) and pedal instrument with 19 stops (mechanisms to produce a particular sound) built by Johnson and Son of Westfield, Mass., said David A. Heller, organist and music department chair at Trinity University.
According to his research for a forthcoming book on pipe organs in San Antonio, there were two pipe organs at San Fernando, both built by George Kilgen and Son of St. Louis — a smaller one with one manual and pedals located in the front of the church, succeeded in about a year by a larger model with three manuals and pedals that was installed in the choir loft.
The Kilgen firm, according to its 1951 centennial pamphlet, Seven Generations in Organ Building, were “noted for their sense of tonal balance and artistic restraints … (with) tonal contrasts that make them ideal for the accompaniment of Catholic liturgy throughout the year.”
The first mention of a cathedral organ was in the San Antonio Light, May 4, 1882, in the announcement of the appointment as organist and choir director
of “Professor A.H.J. Barbour … an English gentleman … accomplished organist … and a musician of no mean order.”
Born in 1850 in Liverpool, England, Arthur Joseph Hutchinson Barbour earned his bachelor’s degree at Oxford University and his L. Mus. or licentiate in music, a performance degree, at the University of London. He served as organist of the English Chapel in Rome and was appointed organist at the Reading School in Reading, England, before arriving in 1881 in New York. From then on, he seems to
have remained in the United States (Houston, Cincinnati and Charleston, S.C.) until his death in 1917.
A few months later, the Light gave the organist another puff, asserting that Barbour had “a thorough knowledge of the theory and practice of music in all its branches.” Barbour was usually listed as a music teacher in city directories; the Light calls him “courteous, attentive and proficient” as such.
Maybe Barbour, as the new guy riding high on a swell of praise, advocated for a better
instrument, because the Light, Aug. 22, 1882, reported that “a movement is on foot to erect a new organ at San Fernando and is well supported. A new organ is a decided necessity and will add to the excellence of the musical service of the church.” Following up on Oct. 18, 1882, the newspaper disclosed that it would be a $5,000 instrument.
Details of the new organ were provided Nov. 16, 1882: There would be three manuals, “a full pedal register,” 1,564 pipes and 36 stops, “fitted in a handsome Gothic case.”
By the next time the Light updated the story, Sept. 4, 1883, the dimensions — “according to the original specifications and plans” of organist Barbour — had grown to 40 stops and 1,800 pipes, 32 feet high and 20 feet wide. It was expected to be “the largest and most complete instrument in the state … a great cause of self-congratulation for our city.”
The organ’s tonal specifications, recorded on the Organ Historical Society’s Pipe Organ Database at pipeorgandatabase.org, “suggest a lovely sound in an acoustically vibrant room,” said Paul Marchesano, chair of the society’s database committee.
The instrument, customconstructed for its space in the choir loft, was delivered in the spring of 1884, Heller said, and by then was reputed to be the largest pipe organ in the South.
Barbour continued at San Fernando at least through 1885, taught music here well into the 1890s and went on to hold positions at churches and theaters and to appear at the 1904
World’s Fair in St. Louis.
At an unknown date, Marchesano said, “an unidentified builder electrified the organ, which was originally mechanical action, and provided a new, detached electric action console.”
I’ve sent you some densely technical passages that could be helpful in a restoration, along with contact information for the Organ Historical Society, which would like to be informed for its database as the work is completed.
As for the elevator to the choir loft, all these sources were silent.
The only San Fernando elevator that I could find a newspaper mention of was the one installed in San Fernando Catholic School (covered here April 9, 2016), dedicated Sept. 1, 1930, at Laredo and Salinas streets. Anyone with information about the elevator or photos of it or the organ may contact this column; all responses will be forwarded and may be featured in a future column.