Working With Wood: Then & Now

810 Main Street Museum

Beginning in 1851, Robert Lovelass started making the organ entirely by hand with the exception of the keyboard, twenty-eight lead pipes, and a few turned pieces in the case. The lumber was obtained from cherry trees which grew on the Lovelass farm in Calkins. PA., logs cut in a nearby sawmill, and planed by hand. It took Mr. Lovelass two years to complete his labor of love.

There are one hundred and four wooden pipes which range in size form ½” square by 7” high to 4 ½” square by 48” high, twenty-two lead pipes, and twenty-one ornamental wooden pipes which are painted with gold leaf. The organ was operated by bellows, with the player using their feet.

Robert Lovelass was born in England in 1814, came to Philadelphia with his father in 1833, and moved to what is now know as Calkins, Wayne County where they established a farm in 1835. He was a cabinet maker by trade, and musician.

Also included in this exhibit are several pieces of furniture made by Alanson Blood (1806 – 1885) a Honesdale cabinet maker and hand carved eagles and more made by former Honesdale Mayor and restaurant owner Richard Kreitner.

The exhibit will hand through 2006 in the Torrey Gallery.