Murray M. Harris (Organ Co.)
1899

Charles Eberline on January 22nd, 2022:
The contract price was $2,500, and the organ was dedicated on January 28, 1899 (David Lennox Smith, citing *California Independent* 7 [February 11, 1899]: 2). The First Methodist Church and the First Presbyterian Church of Redlands were destroyed in separate predawn fires, both possibly set by arsonists, on June 29, 1967. A Redlands newspaper article ("Burned Churches") on the conflagrations reported, "Lost in the Presbyterian church fire was a pipe organ first used February 22, 1899." (Smith gave the date of the fire less precisely: "The church and its contents burned to the ground in the 1960s.") Sources: "Burned Churches among First to Be Built in Community," *Redlands (CA) Daily Facts*, June 29, 1967, 3, Newspapers.com, accessed January 22, 2022, https://www.newspapers.com/image/1311309. Herb Pasik, "Methodist, Presbyterian Congregations Homeless," *Redlands (CA) Daily Facts*, June 29, 1967, 1, 3, Newspapers.com, accessed January 22, 2022, https://www.newspapers.com/image/1311284 and https://www.newspapers.com/image/1311309. David Lennox Smith, *Murray M. Harris and Organ Building in Los Angeles, 1894–1913*, rev. ed., ed. Orpha Ochse in cooperation with Jack Bethards, Kevin Gilchrist, Jim Lewis, and Manuel Rosales ([Richmond]: Organ Historical Society, 2005), 226.