Band Organs / Fair Organs

Restored by Reblitz Restorations

North Tonawanda Style 159 Band Organ, restored in 1996 for Santa’s Workshop at the North Pole, Cascade, Colorado. The owner had the special Christmas-themed façade and Santa band director made for the organ at this popular family-oriented amusement park near Colorado Springs. Previously owned by the late Cliff Gray of Texas. North Tonawanda Style 159 band organ.
 
Welte Band Organ repaired for a private collector in 1997. This very rare organ has a Welte player action but the chest and pipes were possibly made by Bruder. The previous restoration was of fine quality, but the motor cloth (double-weight pneumatic cloth) had become stiff, so we simply had to recover a few control and percussion pneumatics to put it back into good playing condition. Rare Welte band organ.
 
Wurlitzer Style 146 Band Organ located in the city park carousel, Pueblo, Colorado. This carousel was built by C.W. Parker in 1911 and remodeled at the factory in 1914. It was shipped to Lake Minnequa Park, a commercial amusement park in Pueblo, Colorado, which also had a PianOrchestra and a Wurlitzer 165 band organ. The 165 was ruined in the “Great Flood” of 1921 and is known to have been taken to the city dump. The fate of the PianOrchestra is unknown.

The carousel survived, and was acquired by the city park department in 1940 without an organ. It was moved to its current location near the zoo in City Park in 1951. The Wurlitzer 146 organ was acquired in the late 1980s and dedicated after we finished a partial restoration in 1989. The large, beautiful city park remains a popular recreation area, with several kiddie rides and an amusement park train that runs around the lake near the carousel.

 Wurlitzer Style 146 Band Organ.
 
Wurlitzer 148 Duplex Band Organ repaired for a private collector in Wisconsin in 2008. It was still in fairly good playing condition, but the vinyl tubing installed by a previous restorer in the 1960s had reacted with the brass tubing connectors, exuding green goo that soaked into some of the wooden parts, leaving a sticky mess. Moral to this story: never use clear vinyl tubing on brass connectors! Wurlitzer Style 148 duplex band organ.
 
Wurlitzer Style 155 “Monster” Band Organ #2128, made in 1907. The Monster contains 255 pipes, bass drum, snare drum, and cymbal, played by special Style 155 paper rolls. Billed as “The Twentieth Century Wonder” in a circa 1906 catalog, it was “designed especially for large amusement parks, roller skating rinks and other places where a very powerful organ is required.” The front of the cabinet has three leaded glass windows that can be opened or closed to control the volume. Unlike most Wurlitzer band organs, the Monster was built in a chassis with a separate cabinet surrounding it. Wurlitzer Style 155 Monster Band Organ.
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Wurlitzer Style 155 “Monster” Band Organ, #2453, originally shipped from the factory on Dec. 2, 1909 to Elitch Gardens, Denver. Together with PTC menagerie carousel #6, made in 1905, it was acquired by the Kit Carson County commissioners for the county fairground in Burlington, Colorado in 1928. This carousel is considered one of the most important historic carousels in the U.S. because it still has its original paint on the animals and paintings. The original paint had been covered with several coats of varnish that turned dark brown, but it was never repainted in typical amusement park paint. Will Morton restored the original paint by patiently removing the old varnish, touching up, and recoating with an appropriate conservation-quality protective coating, and has maintained it since the 1970s. Wurlitzer Style 155 Monster Band Organ.
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