However, an object is housed in the IU Auditorium that shares just as rich of a history.
The IU Auditorium organ is different from many organs found in the world. According to the IU Auditorium website, the organ boasts a grand total of 4,543 pipes, 88 stops — knobs on the organ — and 76 ranks — groups of pipes.
John DeLong, IU Auditorium stage manager, said the console is stored in the basement of the auditorium, and when it’s brought upstairs for use, it’s digitally connected to the pipes.
“The original organ was built by Frank Roosevelt for the Chicago Auditorium in Chicago,” Curator Emeritus Tom Wood said. “It was the largest organ in the country at that time.”
Wood’s experience with the organ dates back to the 1960s, he said, when he cared for the original organ for a private company.
According to the website, Roosevelt built the original organ in 1889, and it was housed in the Chicago Auditorium until the building was demolished in the 1940s. Dr. William Harrison Barnes of Evanston, Illinois, wanted to see the organ saved, as it is a one-of-a-kind instrument.
“IU Auditorium was built on the same pattern as the Chicago Auditorium, so (Barnes) saved it and donated it to IU,” Wood said.
Wood said IU was lucky to receive the instrument because there wasn’t another organ suitable for usage in recitals or other events at the time.
“The previous largest organ was about one-twentieth the size of this one,” Wood said.
According to the website, the organ was installed in the IU Auditorium in 1944.
In 1961, there was a small fire backstage in the auditorium.
Wood said the fire triggered the sprinkler system, which caused damage to some of the pipes, as well as the console. This, along with some already deteriorating pipework, forced the organ to be rebuilt.
"(In 1969) the new organ was built for the auditorium,” Wood said. “(They) retained five of the original sets of pipes from the original organ.”
The new organ was built with some of the pipes exposed outside of the chambers, where the rest of the pipes are located. In the auditorium, they are on the left wall.
However, DeLong said the pipes on the wall only account for about one-fourth of the total pipes. Wood said there was a great desire to ensure that the organ’s sound could be dispensed throughout the room.
“(The old organ) had a lot of cables and hoses and wire, probably about a foot in diameter, to connect it to the windboxes,” DeLong said. “Now, it takes a power cable and a data cable the size of your little finger. And because of that, we’re able to store the console in the basement usually when it’s not in use.”
DeLong said it takes two people to move the instrument upstairs from the basement.
“The organ currently gets used for university functions,” Wood said. “(President) McRobbie asked for an increase in usage, since it wasn’t used much before.”
