After a year-long restoration project, Glen Foerd’s pipe organ, built in 1902 by Philadelphia’s one-time C.S. Haskell company and installed in Glen Foerd’s Gilded Age mansion by industrialist Robert Foerderer, has come home to sing once again.
On Friday afternoon, the Haskell organ was fired up for the first time after a week-long reinstallation.
Foerderer had the custom organ built for his wife Caroline, an accomplished organist; he did not live to hear it play.
The restoration project was funded through a grant of $425,000 from the Wyncote Foundation and restored by Ohio-based Charles Kegg, president and artistic director of Kegg Pipe Organ Builders. Once fully tuned and ready, the organ will be used for regular public performances. ••
