Wurlitzer Opus 501 was built for the Lafayette Square Theatre (aka Lafayette Theatre) in Buffalo, New York, and was shipped from the Wurlitzer factory on January 10, 1922. The organ is a 3-manual, 15-rank Style 260 Special. The “Special” designation was because a Brass Saxophone was added. The Lafayette Theatre, which reportedly could seat over 3,500 patrons, opened on February 27, 1922. The theatre operated continuously from 1922 until 1962 when it was demolished to make room for a “temporary” parking lot, which is still there today.

In 1962 the organ was sold to the late Donald Borden for installation in his home in Mentor, Ohio. He removed the organ just before the demolition of the theatre. In 1975 Mr. Borden sold the organ to the late Ernest Boda, an accomplished keyboard musician and arranger for off-Broadway shows in the late 1940’s. The organ was moved to the Boda residence in Stratford, Connecticut, in 1975 and installation began in 1976.

After Mr. Boda passed away in 1995, his wife Beth continued to preserve the organ with the help of CVTOS chapter members, but in September 2005 she decided that it needed a new home and advertised it for sale. After seeing the advertisement Barry and Larry scheduled an inspection visit and purchased it on the spot, and Beth very graciously agreed to allow the organ to remain in her home until construction of their new home was completed. Construction began in October 2005 and was completed in March 2006. Plans for the new home included two 9’ x 14’ organ chambers with 23½’ ceilings, each speaking into an 18’ x 21’ Great Room with a 14’ ceiling. The organ speaks into the Great Room through two 5’ wide x 6’ high shade openings which are 15½’ above the chamber floor.

Restoration of the organ began immediately after the first components were moved to Lebanon. All of the pipes, chests, regulators, percussions, and tremulants were thoroughly cleaned to remove years of coal dust accumulation. All of the leather, felt, and rubber cloth in the organ was replaced, in addition to many, many screws (so many screws!).

The console had been painted white after removal from the theatre and was showing signs of wear, so we decided to restore it to the original factory mahogany finish. Since the original Style 260 specification was quite limited (particularly the Solo manual), the organ was re-specified and 71 stop tablets were added to meet the expectations of contemporary artists. The organ is operated by an Artisan Micro-MIDI Control System and combination action.

The original Kinetic blower was powered by a 10-hp, 200-v DC motor. We purchased a new 10-hp, 220-v, 3-phase, AC motor that was installed and laser aligned by the motor shop. A new variable frequency drive and 3-phase reactor replaced the old starter. A Gottfried Post Horn was added to the original Wurlitzer ranks to bring the organ to 16 ranks.

Even though we added 71 additional stop tablets to the console, it still didn’t have enough switches to control the relay, combination action, and many of the effects on the Toy Counter. Terry Nace made two custom pull-out drawers for us, each containing 24 buttons, that were installed in June 2018. Some of the drawer buttons are programmed to play 17 digital voices (Hauptwerk/Masterworks 331 Wurlitzer) that can be activated by the combination action.

After 11 years of work, we can finally say that the organ is “finished.”

For more information, visit 501's website: http://theatreorgans.com/wurlitzer/opus501/index.htm