Historical Context of the Woodberry Organ

One of the crowning achievements of the Woodberry & Cole organ company is the design and tonal spectrum of the Sainte Marie Church pipe organ. It was built at a time when early 20th century American builders such as G. Donald Harrison, Ernest Skinner (of Aeolian-Skinner), Estey, E. and G.G. Hook & Hastings, and M.P. Moller were creating lasting historic organs throughout the United States.  

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Early in the 1880s, three organ builders who had trained in Bristol, England came to the United States to work for Hook & Hastings. James Cole, Jesse Woodberry, and Jesse's brother James soon after left Hook & Hastings and started their own business in 1886. It was called Cole & Woodberry Bros. and was located on Bristol Street in the South End of Boston. In 1888, Jesse Woodberry and one of his workmen, Charles T. Harris, who had earlier been a flue voicer for George S. Hutchings, left to form the new firm of Woodberry & Harris. In 1893, Charles Harris went to work for E.W. Lane as a voicer, and Jesse Woodberry continued on his own until 1910.

Meanwhile, Woodberry & Cole continued their partnership until the firm closed its doors in 1899, shortly after completing the Ste. Marie organ. From there, James Cole went on to work for numerous firms, mainly tuning and restoring organs, while Jesse Woodberry remained an independent builder whose work probably consisted of repairs, tuning, and building smaller pipe organs.

Several years before these men went their separate ways, a fire destroyed the first church of the parish on the West Side of Manchester, NH on October 16th, 1890. Monsignor Pierre Hevey, its second pastor, began work the next spring on a new building whose remarkable brick edifice - featuring accents of Rutland granite and a 224-foot spire - symbolized the religious fervor of its French parishioners. In addition to the construction, a pipe organ perfectly fitted to the new church was commissioned to be built by Woodberry & Cole. Intriguingly, the Franco-American community, despite being known at the time as "Little Quebec," bypassed French organ firms such as Casavant Frere from Saint Hyacinthe, Quebec. This firm later installed several pipe organs nearby in Parish of the Transfiguration (St. Jean de Baptiste), St. Anthony Parish, and the abbey church in St. Anselm College.

Msgr. Pierre Hevey revealed his approval of the Woodberry instrument in a letter he wrote to Cole and Woodberry in 1903:

The four manual electro-pneumatic organ which you have built for our church four years ago is still in as good order as it was when set in position; it has ever since given the most entire satisfaction as to… general workmanship.  … The East organ placed at 120 feet from aside of [the] Great organ has been used in connection with our boy choir … and we cannot speak too highly of the satisfaction it has given.  … [W]e have not… the least little troubles which are so common with organs of other builders.  …Our organ is open to any organist who would like to list its merits and … [o]ur congregation feels proud to own such a fine instrument - which is… the largest and most complete in the State.*

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Signed by the pastor and the organist, this letter is an excellent snapshot of the workmanship and condition of the instrument in its early years. By the time it was written, Woodberry & Cole had built their last organ.

*Letter provided courtesy of Ste. Marie Parish