Sacred Heart Roman Catholic Church - Bally, PA

John & Andrew Krauss - 1799

The organ in Sacred Heart Roman Catholic Church in Bally was originally built by John and Andrew Krauss in 1798-99. (Bally was called Goshenhoppen at this time.) The organ cost £175 and was set up by the Krauss brothers from February 3 - March 10, 1799. David Tannenberg, Jr. was working for the Krauss brothers during this time and the case of the original organ shows a strong influence of the elder Tannenberg's style.

The organ was originally a one manual instrument of 9 stops. The Roman Catholic chapel for which it was constructed was much smaller than the present building. Around 1864, the organ was rebuilt by Andrew's son, George. He apparently added a second manual of 4 stops and a pedal with an open wood 16' Sub Bass identical to the one in the 1865 Huff's Church organ. At a later date, the organ was again rebuilt - this time by George's son, Edwin Krauss. Edwin apparently replaced some of the 1799 ranks as part of his work. He also rebuilt the original recessed keydesk into a Victorian projecting console with terraced stop knobs.

The organ was once again rebuilt, this time in 1905 by Barrington & Oakey. It is not certain exactly what work they did, but there are pipes in the organ today that are old but not of a Pennsylvania-German origin. By the time the organ was rebuilt a fourth time - in 1862 by Hartman-Beaty Organ Co. - many of the 1799 pipes had already been removed. The stoplist immediately before the 1962 rebuild was:

The author made a detailed examination of the organ in the fall of 1998. At that time, it was found that the three windchests were original as well as 4 complete ranks and various stopped basses. It was almost impossible to ascertain which pipes were from 1799 and which might have been part of the George Krauss rebuild of 1864 because the pipework from these two generations are very similar in construction. The original (1799 and 1864) pipes in the present organ are as follows:

In the Great:

Flute 4' (54 notes, open wood)
Lowest 15 pipes of a stopped bass (possibly part of an 8' Gedackt)
Lowest 17 pipes of a stopped bass to the present 8' string stop
Lowest 12 pipes of a stopped bass for the Principal 8'

In the Swell (added by George Krauss in 1864):

Gedackt 8' (54 notes, stopped wood)
Octav 2' (42 pipes, missing the lowest octave)

In the Pedal:

Subbass 16' (added by George Krauss in 1864)

From the available evidence, it is possible to reconstruct the stop list from 1799. It may have been the following (NOTE: the stops names are conjectural based on surviving Krauss contracts):

Click on the thumbnails to see the larger pictures: