Pipe Organ Database

The Erben organ was moved to the new church, where it served until 1866. It was sold to the Free Will Baptist Church on Weir Street, Taunton. In 1874, that church was purchased by the newly organized Grace Methodist Church. In 1925, Central Methodist Church united with Grace Methodist to form Calvary Methodist, using the Grace building. A year or so later, the Erben organ was replaced by a new Moller organ, Op. 4913. -- 2005 OHS Handbook

In 1871, George W Dean, organist for 24 years at the Trinitarian Congregational Church, wrote a chapter in that church's 50th-anniversary commemorative book, which gives the histories, costs, and specifications of the organs then in all of the city's Protestant churches. His information has proven to be extremely accurate. Dean, however, makes no mention of a Hodges & Fisher organ at St. Thomas, but gives the date of the Erben organ as 1832. The List of Churches: For which Organs have been built by Henry Erben, Organ Builder, New York, dated October 15, 1841, shows only two instruments in Massachusetts - St. Thomas and St. Mary's, both in Taunton. While this dates the St. Thomas instrument to at least 1841, it does not help solve the contradiction between the two sources mentioned above. -- 2005 OHS Handbook