"You really have a tresure here," Scott Carpenter, curator of the Tanneberg organs at Old Salem, told parishioners at St. Clement's as he conducted a demonstration of the mechaical action instrument.  John Allen Farmer of J. Allen Farmer, Inc. Winston-Salem moved and installed the organ in October (2013) from St. Mark's Episcopal Church in Huntersville, and he was present at the demonstrtion to give a detailed history of the organ.

 

Built between 1835 and 1840 by E.&G.G. Hook, who had just established their Hook Company in 1827, the organ was used in churches in New England until going to a private home in 1950. Some years later it was purchaed by Organ Clearing House and put into storage until St. Mark's purchased it in 1990. 

 

Despite the modifications and restorations that have taken place over the years, this small single-manual instrument continues to have a very rich, sweet sound, and its contruction holds similarities with the Tannenberg organs - hence Carpenter's complimentary remarks.

 

Being over 175 years old makes the St. Clement's organ the third oldest organ in the state with only the two Tannenberg organs of Old Salem surpassing it in age.

 

Church members helped Farmer dismantle the organ, load it onto a truck, move it and then dust the pipes of cobwebs. It was then reassembed into a working organ in its new home at St. Clement's