Newspaper Page Text
The Southern Cross, Page 6
Amumd the
Thursday, January 4, 2001
Cathedral organ featured in new hook
♦ 4
A memento of a tragic fire surfaces
A small metal cross owned by
Harold Mulherin, Jr., is actually a
fragment of a bell destroyed by the
fire that gutted the Cathedral of
Saint John the Baptist more than a
hundred years ago.
A close-up photo (right) reveals the
inscription, “part of Cathedral bell,
fire February 6, 1898.”
A new bell was cast and installed in
1900. That bell has recently been
restored.
Left: Mulherin shows the cross to
Bishop J. Kevin Boland. Standing by
is Mulherin’s nephew, Father John J.
Lyons, pastor, Saint Joseph Church,
Augusta.
Photos by Gillian Brown
Johnnie Ganems
Package Shop
Complete Line of
Imported and Domestic
Wine & Beer
Gaston and Habersham
912-233-3032
Savannah
Above left: Mrs. Patty Schreck, Cathedral organist, at the keyboard.
Above right: The pipes glimmer under new lighting at Christmas
Midnight Mass. Left: William B. Clarke, organist at Saint Paul’s Lutheran
Church, Savannah, is shown presenting a copy of his book to the
Archives, Catholic Diocese of Savannah.
By Gillian Brown Photographs in the book show the John
Savannah
ipe organs at the Cathedral of Saint John
the Baptist are featured in a new book,
Organs of Savannah, by William B. Clarke,
Jr., and Jacquelyn A. Royal (Savannah: Big D
Concepts, 2000). Beginning with the first
recorded organ, purchased in the mid-1830s,
the book traces the story of Cathedral organs
up to the current instrument, built by the
Noack company of Massachusetts and
installed in 1985.
| William Clarke was a member of the com-
J mittee which selected the organ and super-
| vised its installation. The committee was hea-
g ded by the late Dr. J. Harry Persse, former
chair of the Fine Arts Department at
8 Armstrong State College, now Armstrong
£ Atlantic State University.
Brown organ which was in place in 1900, and
the new Noack, which was custom-built to
enhance—rather than to hide—the rose win
dow behind it and the narrow lancet windows
at its sides.
The book gives an account of organs in the
historic district of Savannah, from 1765 to
2000, including those at Christ Church
(Episcopal), Independent Presbyterian, the
Lutheran Church of the Ascension, First
Baptist Church, Congregation Mickve Israel,
Saint Paul’s Lutheran Church, Trinity
Methodist Church and Wesley Monumental
Church.
Gillian Brown is Archivist of the
Diocese of Savannah.