Skinner Opus 708 - The Parish of All Saints, Ashmont/Boston, MA - 2015

Jonathan Ortloff was honored to be part of the team assembled by Jonathan Ambrosino to complete the restoration and relocation of Skinner Opus 708.

The Parish of All Saints, Ashmont, in Boston’s Dorchester neighborhood, is one of two Anglo-Catholic parishes in the city and worships in the first church building designed by Ralph Adams Cram and Bertram Grosvenor Goodhue.

Boasting the only vested choir of Men and Boys in the city of Boston, All Saints has been served by two pipe organs since 1993. C.B. Fisk Opus 103 sits in a gallery in the rear of the nave, providing voluntaries and congregational accompaniment. For choral accompaniment, an organ has been present in the chancel since 1902. Skinner Organ Company Opus 708, built for First Methodist Church in North Adams, Massachusetts, was purchased by All Saints to replace the much-rebuilt and deteriorated chancel organ.

The restoration project was a collaboration between Jonathan Ambrosino, Joe Sloane, and Ortloff Organ Company. The Skinner was restored with no tonal or mechanical changes, save the addition of an enclosed high-pressure Tromba playable from the Choir and Pedal, using vintage Skinner pipes and mechanism. The organ's elegant console was restored with no changes, including the retention of the original electro-pneumatic switching and combination action. Originally installed in two separate chambers, Opus 708 was re-engineered to fit into Ashmont's single chamber, behind a facade designed by Betram Goodhue.