The following is a summary of the history of our Erben organ along, with technical details that Jim Baird kindly supplied for our website.

This small organ was built by Henry Erben of New York City in 1851 for Trinity Episcopal Church in Shepherdstown, West Virginia. Erben founded a small factory in Baltimore in 1847 to build organs for the growing demand for his organs in the south, which was only open until 1863. This organ was built :in the Baltimore factory, and is the only known extant organ that was built in the Baltimore Shop.

The silver nameplate on the organ reads:  Henry Erben, Baltimore 1851

The organ has a pine case. painted white, with gold trim, and a black crown. The one manual keyboard has 56 keys, from CC to g3 and a 13 note pull down pedalboard, which is believed to have been added later and may not be original to the organ. The size of the case is approximately 3 feet deep, 5.6 feet wide and 8.8 feet tall.

The disposition of the organ is as follows:

8’                 Open Diapason - 39 pipes

8’                 Dulciana - 39 pipes

8’                 Stpd Diapason Bass - 17 pipes

4’                 Principal - 56 pipes

2’                 Fifteenth - 56 pipes

The original 8' Chimney Flute was replaced by Cleveland Fisher of Manassas in 1962 with 39 new Fifteenth pipes from Jacques Stinkens Orgelpijpenmakers B.V., of the Netherlands. Seventeen (17) bass pipes were added in 2014 by Mr. Jim Baird for a full compass.

The original hand pumped bellows (feeders) and reservoir have been replaced with a modern type cone valve reservoir, of an uncertain date, during a 1962 rebuild by Mr. Cleveland Fisher. While the original hand pump is still extant, an ¼ HP motor/blower by Spencer presently supplies air for the organ.

History of the 1851 Erben:

·      Built for Trinity Episcopal Church, Shepherdstown, Virginia (now West Virginia) 1851.

·      Moved to the Presbyterian Church in Leesburg, Virginia, 1901, removed in the late 1940s and sold to Lewis & Hitchcock Organs, Inc., who hired it out as a "loaner" organ.

·      Moved to the Old Presbyterian Meeting House, Alexandria, Virginia by Lewis & Hitchcock Organs, Inc; 1956 and installed in the front of the side gallery; later moved to another house on the property, nicknamed the Flounder House, originally built as the parsonage. The church House also has an 1849 Erben organ in the sanctuary

·      Moved to Immanuel Presbyterian Church, McLean, Virginia by Mr. Cleveland Fisher, 1962.

·      Moved to the home of Ira (Ben) Faidley, McLean, Virginia by Mr. Cleveland Fisher, ca 1971.

·      Moved to and refurbished for Saint Luke's Anglican Catholic Church, Falmouth, VA as a perpetual loan, by Messrs. Jim Baird and David Dutton, 2014.