Tales from a Scenic Artist and Scholar. Part 111 – Documenting the Fort Scott Scottish Rite, 2015

There was a service staircase in Fort Scott that ascended to the space above the auditorium ceiling. We accessed it through a door at the end of the arbor rail that led to a steep metal staircase.

Before ascending the steps, I looked up to my left and marveled at the square plates of alabaster stained glass. These were some of the decorative elements on the sidewalls of the auditorium. When illuminated, they provided a warm glow to an otherwise dark room.

Climbing up the narrow staircase, we first explored the areas high above the proscenium arch and ceiling medallions. Our first trip was to identify possible access points to the wooden grid above the stage. Our last trip was attempting to access the neighboring Western Insurance Company roof as we had noticed a tree growing up there. Every day during our break, we had marveled the young sapling and wanted to see how it had taken root.

Typically, the spaces above an auditorium and stage hold a plethora of interesting artifacts left behind by the original workmen. You never know what is hidden beneath layers of dust and chunks of plaster. In addition to abandoned artifacts left during construction, maintenance men, stage crews, and office staff also stashed many unwanted items in these storage areas. For me, the discoveries found high above the theater often rival those from the stage floor.

We explored a room directly above the proscenium that held the organs pipes and other musical innards that were noted as a “patented universal air chest system” by Austin Organ Company. In the auditorium, there was a traditional style organ console with roll top. The Valley of Fort Scott had purchased this organ with three manuals and thirty-six ranks for $15,000 in 1924.

By 2007, a newspaper article estimated the current value at two million dollars. I was amazed by its pristine condition and beautiful woodwork.

The label for the Austin Organ Company of Hartford, Connecticut was especially intriguing as it placed a lute and compass in a similar arrangement as a Masonic square and compass. A banner over this image included the company’s motto, “Scientia, Artem, Adjuvat,” or “Science Aids Art.” Was Austin a Mason? Various articles note that this motto was not just a clever marketing scheme, but a way of life for the founder and his employees. Many of the machines that manufactured organ parts were kept on site so that the production, maintenance, and repair of every model could happen immediately. One example is the famous “seven-headed monster” kept in a front room of the manufacturing plant that produced pedal and stop-action blocks.

The story of the company and John T. Austin, is quite remarkable. As a new immigrant to America, Austin had worked for a variety of organ manufacturers and rapidly worked his way up their ranks with his skill and ingenuity. He actually developed a new type of windchest (he called it an air chest) where you could simply walk right into it and service the complete mechanism. This is what we found in Fort Scott as each of us went inside to examine the organ’s components. Inside the air chest was the motor for the bellows and an electric generator. By the mid-1920s, the Austin Organ company was producing over eighty new pipe organs annually. In 1924, one of these eighty organs became destined for Fort Scott.

The company’s high level of productivity continued until the crash of 1929 when it was hit hard by the economic downturn. By 1937 Austin Organ Co. underwent reorganization and moved to a new facility. Interestingly, their largest on most elaborate model, the Opus 558, would be the company’s first five-manual instrument specifically designed for another Masonic Theater – the Medinah Temple in Chicago.

Company records list that 72 organs were installed in Masonic Lodges across the country. An additional 113 organs were installed in theaters and the list goes on from there. Their client venues included open-air theaters, auditoriums, churches, hotel, stores residence, insurance buildings. I don’t know what category included Scottish Rite performance spaces – auditorium, theater or Masonic Temple? Here is a lovely link for those interested in the history of the Austin Organ Company: https://www.thediapason.com/cover-feature-austin-organs-mil…

A major aspect of many Scottish Rite degree productions is organ music with choral accompaniment. First-class organs were installed in most Scottish Rite theaters and Masonic lodge rooms across the country. Many of these instruments are still revered by national music organizations that plan concerts in these performance venues. Like churches, Scottish Rite auditoriums host organ concerts that draw people in from all over the world.

The Organ Historical Society lists 58 pipe organs at Scottish Rite theaters in its pipe organ database. It also lists 466 pipe organs in Masonic Lodges across the country. Obviously, not every organ in a Masonic building has been included in their database. Unfortunately, there are very few pictures to accompany the database’s technical specifications. If you are a Mason and have a pipe organ in your building, you might want to consider uploading a picture into their database. Here is the link: http://www.organsociety.org/

Behind the organ pipe room at Fort Scott was a partial floor. Standing on ceiling beam, one could see thru the ceiling medallions and down to the auditorium floor.

Nearby was a heavy metal door that was barred shut. Why was it barred? Curious minds needed to know, so my crew muscled it open. Standing high above the stage floor we had a picturesque view of the top wooden battens on drops suspended high above the stage. One of my crew determined that this was where the organ installers brought up the pipes and air chest from the stage floor. This was also how the organ could be removed and transported to another location.

To be continued…