Scot Huntington on July 4th, 2025:
The organ was removed to my shop for restoration on June 23, 2025. I can make the following observations as the organ was removed: 1) The case is mahogany veneer on pine, with solid mahogany in minor decorative elements. The chest and internal construction are pine. The windchest was retabled in unusually thick plywood in 1964. 2) The "Sub Bass" knob was once connected to something, with some remnant bits of this connection, What it was is a mystery and there is no evidence on the keyboards that a pedal coupler was ever involved. There is an opening in the front bottom of the case which could accommodate a pedal board, with mortises in the floor frame where such a thing might have attached, but no evidence in the wind system that anything would have winded a pedal chest of bass pipes. So it will continue to be a mystery. 3) Part of the hand-pumping handle exists, and was originally connected at the back side of the organ for pumping on the left (bass) side, and this would have been connected to a single wedge feeder. 4) I have questions about the originality of the wind system, as it is the only Pratt known to me with a double-rise reservoir, instead of a wedge bellows. It is also the only one known to me painted in red brick paint. But for the moment I'm operating on the assumption it is original. However, why would a builder who was aware of this improved construction ignore it's benefits in a later high-style 1841 chamber organ? The wedge reservoir persisted in the work of Pratt, Nutting, Phelps, Andrews, and the various generations of the Mt. Vernon (N.H.) school into the 1840s, while Goodrich in Boston had converted to the double rise probably as early as the teens. 5) The "Dulciana" was originally an open wood stop from tenor-f with 3 open metal trebles. This stop will be reconstructed in wood. It has its own st. wood bass to 8' C, and these pipes are extant. All other stops in the organ continue down to contra-G. 6) Unlike the Pennsylvania German organs where wood pipes have short feet and plug directly into the toeboard, The Pratt wood pipes have long slender wood feet, turned on a lathe and captured in traditional rackboards. In 1798 No. 1, these sit within cylindrical toeboard borings while in this organ the toeboard are the usual shallow burned counterbores. 7) Except for the spurious metal Dulciana 8' trebles, the extant pipes (wood and metal) are original. 8) In Pratt No. 1, the pallet box is at the rear of the chest. In this organ it is at the front. Both organs have balanced keyboards and a backfall between keys and pallets.

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Scot Huntington on April 7th, 2025:
The last sentence of my 2022 update is incorrect. I recently (4/6/25) visited the Pratt church organ (No. 1, 1799) now at the Conant Library in Winchester, NH, hometown of Henry Pratt. While the cases are different, the two surviving Pratt church organs are tonally identical, and the Winchester organ is nearly completely unaltered and is in more authentic and reliable condition than the tonally altered Sturbridge organ. The Winchester organ will serve as the reference model for the upcoming restoration of the Sturbridge organ. The diagonal wedge reservoir at Winchester suggests the rectangular reservoir at Strubridge receives close scrutiny as to its originality.

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Scot Huntington on April 2nd, 2022:
The double-rise reservoir is intact, but is said to have lost its feeders and pumping mechanism in 1963, a serious loss. The reservoir was releathered in 2006 by Foley-Baker, and a new Ventus blower was installed at that time. All ranks except the Dulciana are wood, with metal trebles for the smallest pipes. The Dulciana is a spurious set of 19th-century open metal pipes of unknown origin, and of smaller scale than the holes in the original rackboard were meant to hold. The facade pipes are gilded half-round wooden dummies, that have been over-painted with gold paint. There is a hole in the baseboard which could have been either a machine stop or a foot-pumping pedal for the organist, but all traces of the mechanism are gone. Likewise the knob and shank for the Sub Bass are not connected to anything, so it is not known whether this was simply a preparation for a stop never installed, or if this controlled some manner of coupler mechanism. The woodwork of the lower console and baseboard is original, and nothing like a pedalboard was ever installed here. The center portion of the facade lifts out, with some difficulty, and this is the access for tuning, the stops laid out with tallest ranks at the back and smallest at the front. The organ has been tuned in equal temperament since 1963. The wood pipes have had their tops savagely hacked, and cardboard extensions were installed to bring the pipes to pitch. The metal pipes have all been trimmed and fitted with slide tuners, so all evidence of the original pitch and temperament have been lost. This is the only authenticated Pratt church organ extant, the other surviving instruments are all small residential chamber organs in plain cases. Other than pipework, the organ is in a reliable historic state.

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Database Manager on October 30th, 2004:
Relocated and rebuilt organ originally built by Pratt for Immanuel Episcopal, Bellows Falls, Vermont. Altered. Restored Andover 1964, #R-62, 1-5.