The expression “pull out all the stops” refers to using all the feathers of an organ at the same time. You can change the sound by using the stops, which are pull knobs that add extra features. The keys operate reeds, so when you press the key, air from the bellows flows up the reed and makes a sound. Two volunteers by the pump organ as it is decked out for a wedding in 2008.įirst, to make sound you must fill the organ’s bellows by pumping the foot pedals. To give you options, the stops let you add sounds, link keys and add vibration.

Our organ has four sets of reeds all packed into the case. They contain of all of the parts of a large church pipe organ packed into a smaller version that fits in your home. Pump organs are very complicated instruments. It must have been a top-of-the-line model, judging from the way it was made and its innovative features like a sub-bass and rubber components. Its mechanical parts are much like the older style melodeons made during the Civil War but features like the “Tremolo” function more like organs made in the 1880s. It was an early version of what they call the cottage-style pump organ. Our pump organ was built by the Smith American company in 1864 at the end of the Civil War. They’ll be pleased to know the organ has found a new home and is treasured here at Kline Creek Farm.Ī volunteer plays the organ as the farmhouse would be decked out for a wedding in 2008. The organ must mean a lot to the family because they gave it on the condition that if theForest Preserve District every disposed of it, the family would have the right of first refusal. In 1987, a Lombard family gave their parlor organ to the Forest Preserve District for the restoration of the Kline Creek Farm farmhouse. I knew it had major problems and I had money in the budget to restore it, but one day it stopped playing so it moved up higher on our priority list.

Once we had the wood-burning stove in the works, our next project was to restore our pump organ at the 1880s farmhouse museum at Kline Creek Farm in West Chicago.

How to play pump organ