Organ restoration latest phase in Assumption renos

WINDSOR, Ont. -- The latest phase in the restoration of historic Our Lady of the Assumption Church here includes the dismantling of the 104-year-old pipe organ.

Dodington & Dodington, organ specialists from Aylmer, Ont.,  began taking apart the vast configuration of organ pipes to ready the church balcony ceiling above for beginning of interior centre aisle plaster, painting and mural retouching. 

A crew will remove or protect the literally hundreds of pipes — from the size of a pencil to some weighing around 100 kg and measuring six metres in length — make any repairs and provide a major cleaning before it is returned to the renovated church.

Jim Dodington, whose family has been in the organ restoration business for generations, called the work “dirty and sweaty” but was grateful to Assumption for providing a good workplace.

“Sometimes you have to rig things down,” he said. “It was nice that the contractor provided us with the scaffolding here.”

Dodington estimated the Opus 791 Organ, with its 1,985 pipes, is among the top 10 per cent of organs in size ever manufactured.

On hand was organ consultant Ron Dossenbach, a Windsorite who trained on the organ as a music student at the adjacent University of Windsor.

Dossenbach said he’s happy the organ is being preserved as part of the church’s renewal. 

“There are so many organs that are coming offline and that are being broken up for parts,” he said. “There’s over 500 pipe organs that are trapped in buildings that are no longer used as churches.”

Dossenbach said the Opus 791’s sound quality is “majestic.” He said the sound of an organ has a “lot to do” with a building’s acoustics. At Assumption “it’s got an old-world sound, it’s gratifying to play.”

Paul Mullins, a local lawyer leading the restoration efforts, said the centre nave repairs should be completed next year.

Restoration work began four years ago with a new copper roof, heating system and asbestos removal. Parishioners returned in fall 2019. After the interior work is completed, work will start on the exterior masonry.

“The engineers indicated that we couldn’t do anything on the outside except for the roof until we had done the plaster consolidation because it was too fragile,” Mullins said.

Work proceeds only if there is enough money in the bank. So far fundraising has brought in $5 million. The interior work will cost another $1.7 million and “many more” millions for the exterior. Funds have come from across Canada and mainly outside the west-end city parish because it is relatively poor economically.

But the church holds both local and national significance as the longest continuing-running parish west of Montreal.

The church has also applied for national historic status which would make it easier to raise money.

“It would be very significant because most public companies and government agencies are not allowed to donate to denominational churches,” he said.

Mullins hopes renovations will be completed by 2028, the tricentennial of the original mission to the Huron nation of Detroit. The parish was established in 1767.