The J. W. Steere and Sons Opus #344 Pipe Organ was originally built and installed in 1892 for the Unitarian Universalist Church located in Elgin, Illinois.
In November 1997, Old Pine church made the decision to purchase an historic J. W. Steere Pipe Organ to replace the ailing electronic organ then in use. Previous to that, the church had a Stanbridge three manual tracker organ, installed in 1876, which fell into disrepair sometime during the first half of the 20th century.
The J. W. Steere and Sons Opus #344 Pipe Organ was originally built and installed in 1892 for the Unitarian Universalist Church located in Elgin, Illinois and was purchased by Mr. Robert B. Whiting in 1992. Mr. Whiting was an organ enthusiast who had collected some fifty historic organs over his lifetime. One of his attractions to the J. W. Steere Pipe Organ was to save this significant example of 19th century American Organ construction. The instrument was completely overhauled and installed in his studio in 1992. Mr. Whiting considered this his favorite of all the historic organs he had purchased over the years, due to its unusually rich and beautiful tone. After Mr. Whiting’s death, the instrument went up for auction and was purchased by Patrick Murphy, who did the renovation work. The organ was installed at Old Pine during the summer of 1998.
