World’s Largest Pipe Organ

Last month The Traveling Locavores had the privilege of visiting the World’s Largest Pipe Organ!

If you have been following us for a while, you know that we try to make an annual visit to Atlantic City, NJ with our son and daughter-in-love. And this year was no exception. Now after a lifetime of summer visits to Atlantic City I thought I knew every point of interest and tourist attraction. After all, I grew up spending my summers there and continued to do so after Steve and I got married and had Brian. Even after we moved to Florida way back in 1982, we still managed to visit almost every summer for at least a week. The one thing I was unaware of until this visit was the spectacular Boardwalk Hall Organ.

When I was a child my parents and grandparents took me to the Ice Capades at Boardwalk Hall but my focus was on the skaters and their gorgeous costumes. The music produced by that very same organ was nothing I even paid attention to. But that organ was only operating at a fraction of its capacity because it had been neglected for many years. Even today, it has only been about 50% restored. Sixteen million dollars is needed over the next 10 years to return both organs (there is an additional, smaller organ in a huge ballroom which is almost completely restored) to be fully functional.It is expected that, with the rate of funding that is currently coming, the restoration will not be completed until 2030.

The Boardwalk Hall Auditorium Organ is the pipe organ in the Main Auditorium of the Boardwalk Hall (formerly known as the Atlantic City Convention Hall). It is the largest organ in the world, as measured by the number of pipes which is officially 33,112. The main auditorium is 487×288×137 feet with a floor area of 140,000 square feet, giving a volume of 5,500,000 cubic feet Because of this, the organ runs on much higher wind pressures than most organs in order to achieve a volume loud enough to fill the hall.

The Boardwalk Hall Organ has four entries in Guinness World Records, including “Largest pipe organ ever constructed”, “Largest musical instrument ever constructed” and “Loudest musical instrument ever constructed”, and holds several records in the organ world. It is one of only two organs in the world to have an open 64-foot rank, and the only organ to have stops voiced on 100 inches of wind pressure (about 3.6 psi). Its console features seven manuals.

ORGAN’S HISTORY

The organ was designed by state senator Emerson Lewis Richards, an Atlantic City native.  Although politics was his profession, pipe organs were his passion and pre-occupation. He described himself as an “Organ Architect” and had some 80 articles published in organ journals. As a result of his design ideas and the practical demonstrations his influence extended far beyond Atlantic City. In fact, he was dubbed “the Commander-in-Chief of the American Revolution in Organ Building”.

Of the five firms that submitted bids for the construction of the main organ, the firm of Midmer-Losh Inc. of Merrick, Long Island, New York was selected as the winner. Construction began in August of 1929 and was completed on December 5, 1932. Construction of the organ took place between May 1929 and December 1932. Most of the pipes were built by Midmer-Losh. But Anton Gottfried made some of the reed pipes, including the Brass Trumpet, Egyptian Horn, Euphone and Musette Mirabilis. The German firm Welte-Mignon provided the Bassoon with papier-mâché resonators and wooden Tuba d’Amour for the Echo division. At the height of the project, there were over 65 men working both in the factory in Merrick, Long Island as well as on site in the current organ shop. This project was extensively photographed documented during its time of construction which was incredibly unusual in the organ business. It is the most extensive organ construction project in history, exceeding every record known in the 2,500 plus year history of the instrument.

The organ is built around the Main Auditorium of the Boardwalk Hall with the divisions divided across 8 organ chambers. The current layout of the organ was Emerson Richards’ third design. The first design was to house 43,000 pipes in six chambers, but the quoted cost greatly exceeded the allocated $300,000, and there wasn’t enough space to house all the pipes. The numbers of pipes was then reduced to 29,000. Later, when the Forward Chambers were also used, some stops from the original plan were reinstated, raising the numbers of pipes to the present official number of 33,114. The contract price was $347,200.

The Main Auditorium is a vast space, over 5.5 million cubic feet of enclosed air space on an enclosed area of about 7 acres. To fill the venue with sound, Richards designed an organ with some mind-boggling and previously unheard of specifications. There are ten 32-foot ranks, the world’s only 64-foot Diaphone (there only two 64′ stops in the world, this being by far the largest) and four voices on 100-inches of air wind (double that of any other organ ever constructed). With an official total 33,112 pipes, the organ is the largest (and loudest!) musical instrument on Earth. Although it has not functioned fully since the great Atlantic hurricane of 1944, it still continued to play for conventions, the Miss America Pageant, political rallies and sports events.

In 1992 the ownership of what is now called Boardwalk Hall. was transferred to the New Jersey Sports and Exposition Authority. The building was in considerable disrepair and the organ hadn’t been fully operations since the mid-1970s. This period of inactivity resulted in increasing deterioration. Fortunately interest in the organ was kept alive through the advocacy efforts of the non-profit organization, the Atlantic City Convention Hall Organ Society.

In the late 1990s there was a 100-million dollar interior restoration which made Boardwalk Hall Billboard Magazine’s top performing mid-size arena in America in 2003 and 2004. And the services of historic preservation and organ consultants to develop a fifteen-year Midmer-Losh organ restoration master plan, and formed a non-profit 501c3 entity, the Historic Organs Restoration Committee, Inc. to serve as a stewardship advisory board.

HOW THE ORGAN WORKS

The pipes are accommodated in eight chambers arranged in opposite pairs on the left and right sides of the auditorium – there being four chambers in the stage area and four near the center of the room.

The main console is located to the right of the stage, near the proscenium arch. Its seven manuals are called, from bottom to top: Choir, Great, Swell, Solo, Fanfare, Echo, Bombard. There are 1,235 stop-keys, consisting of 852 speaking registers, 35 melodic percussions, 46 non-melodic percussions, 18 tremolos, 164 couplers, and 120 swell pedal selectives – for switching the shades of the swell boxes onto the six swell pedals (a seventh pedal is the crescendo).

TOURS

In addition a “Curator’s Tour” is offered every Wednesday throughout the year beginning at 10AM. This in-depth 2 hour tour leads guests through several sections of the organ which are normally closed to the public and gives an extremely detailed look at the mechanism of the instrument, its history and the current restoration project. This tour does involve a good deal of walking and stair climbing. An alternate tour path is available for persons with limited mobility.

All concerts and tours are free and open to the public with no reservations necessary. However, The Curator’s Tour has a suggested donation of $10. All proceeds go toward the restoration of the pipe organs and are gladly accepted at each of the concerts.

Entrance to the building is through the front lobby off the boardwalk.

BOARDWALK HALL HISTORY

Boardwalk Hall was dedicated on the 31st of May 1929 and commemorated both 75th anniversary of the founding of Atlantic City in 1854 as well as the 50th anniversary of the invention of the electric light bulb by Thomas Edison. Designed by the firm of Lockwood, Greene and Co. of Boston, it was conceived as a self-contained entertainment facility occupying 7 acres of ground on the site of a former amusement park named “Rendezvous Park”. Containing its own direct electric power station, radio station, kitchens and telephone system, it was an incredible feat of engineering and at the time of its completion was the largest enclosed free span arch in the world, the trusses spanning 310 feet in width, with a floor to ceiling height of 137 feet and a total interior length of 456 feet.

OUR TOUR

I have to give a great big shout out to Scott D. Banks, Membership and Events Coordinator, for giving us the most incredible private tour of this unbelievably amazing instrument. We got to squeeze through some teeny spaces and over some precarious walkways to get the feel of the enormity of this instrument. And we never even scratched the surface of all of the pipes because some are housed in the several floors below ground! But we did see that monster 64-foot pipe, 32-foot pipes and even some that were measured in inches. And we even got to hear one full blast up close and personal that had my ears ringing for quite a while.

We even got to meet some of the people working on the restoration. One of them was a 90 year old man who was lovingly removing old leather from organ parts so that the new leather could be added. You could just see from his expression and the way he touched the organ part how much this work meant to him. It was beautiful and emotional.

This behemoth of an organ operates on a system that is computer-like. It truly boggles the mind how advanced this was for being build 90 years ago. The Boardwalk Hall Organ is a window into the next century of the art, and possesses musical capabilities and possibilities that don’t exist anywhere else, and which to this day are not fully understood.

Without these tours most people aren’t ever aware of this incredible organ because it is not necessarily visually obvious to guests of Boardwalk Hall as the organ is enclosed within the walls and ceilings of the building.

If you would like to donate to the Boardwalk Hall Organ Restoration Fund you can just click here.