Experts Rebuild Centuries-Old Pipe Organ

DETROIT — Nearly a century ago, the Barton Opus pipe organ filled Detroit’s Hollywood Theatre with music, showcasing the drama and comedy of silent films. The magnificent instrument was built in 1927 and has been stored for four decades, scattered across a garage, attic and basement in suburban Detroit.

Currently, the Barton Opus is undergoing a painstaking restoration in Indianapolis. Once restored, it will be transported to the Rochester Institute of Technology (RIT) in western New York, where it will be reassembled and housed in a specially designed theater.

Carlton Smith, who has been restoring the organ since 2020, says the Barton Opus could mimic a wide range of musical instruments like strings, flutes, and tubas. It also contained real percussion instruments like a piano, xylophone, and drums, and could produce sound effects like steamboat and bird whistles.

For many, organs and their players were the real stars of the era. “One man could do it all,” Smith notes. “In the big cities, theaters were filled to capacity several times a day for live performances and movies. It was a huge production.”

The Hollywood Theatre, home to the Barton Opus, was known for its excellent acoustics and grandeur. During the heyday of Detroit’s auto industry, the city’s theaters were as opulent as those in New York, Chicago, Los Angeles and San Francisco, says organist and organ technician John Lauter.

“We were such a rich market for moviegoers that theater owners built these lavish places,” Lauter says.

Lauter, who is also director of the Detroit Theatre Organ Society and president of the Motor City Theatre Organ Society, notes that the Hollywood Theatre organ was one of the largest made by Bartola Musical Instrument Co. Only three were ever produced. This Barton opus is the last remaining example that has not been modified.

Silent movie theaters began to decline with the rise of television in the 1950s, leading to the closing of the Hollywood Theatre. Its equipment was sold and the Barton Opus organ was nearly lost. But in the early 1960s, Henry Przybylski saved the organ by buying it at auction for about $3,500. He then dismantled it and stored it in his Dearborn Heights home for about 40 years.

“He never heard or played the instrument,” Lauter says. Przybylski spent most of his life owning the organ without ever putting it together. He died in 2000, but the organ’s journey didn’t end there.

In 2003, Steven Ball, a professional organist, approached Przybylski’s widow to purchase the organ. He managed to raise enough money to purchase it, with the intention of finding an institution that would restore it to its former glory. The organ remained in storage for years until a suitable location was found.

In 2019, RIT President David C. Munson approached Ball about finding the best theater organ for his institution. Ball decided to donate his Barton Opus to RIT, where it will serve as the centerpiece of a new performing arts center. The theater, designed to house the organ, is expected to open by January 2026. Smith says the organ restoration work is a little more than two-thirds complete.

“The theater was designed specifically for this organ,” Munson says, adding that architect Michael Maltzan designed the pipe chambers to match the dimensions of the original Hollywood Theatre. “We have all the original plans for the organ and the pipe layout.”

Although the exact cost of the restoration remains to be determined, Munson believes the investment will yield remarkable results.