It takes a village to save an old pump organ

Word went up last Thursday morning in the Everything Free JP Facebook page: There was a "100ish year old pump organ" just sitting by the curb on trash day on Weld Hill Street in Forest Hills.

People began to talk: Why would somebody throw out something like that? And how can we save it?

It was no toy keyboard, after all. It was "Golden Toned" organ, made by the Beethoven Organ Co., of Washington, NJ, which advertised its wares in the late 1800s in a variety of magazines, including one aimed at poultry farmers.

Curb photo by Ken Hjulstrom (see it larger):

Shortly after noon, Pam Jaques of Jamaica Plain, herself a pump-organ (and viola) player, went over to take a look. It looked like it was in good shape. Not long after, Ken Hjulstrom of Roslindale had the same idea and drove over. Together, Jacques and Hjulstrom first moved the organ away from the trash, so the trash guys wouldn't try to take it. It was kind of heavy, but the thing sat on casters, so they were able to move it a few feet.

The two determined to try to find a new home for the beautiful wooden-framed instrument. They asked every single person who walked by on the side street off Hyde Park Avenue if they'd like a pump organ. Not a lot of people go down the street, so Jacques had a chance to pump the foot pedals and see if the organ would play - it did:

Video by Ken Hjulstrom:

But no takers.

Around 2, though, a woman came by. Like Jaques, she also plays the pump organ (and like Jaques, the viola), and she'd love to take it home - and she lived just a few doors down.

But how to move the thing? Getting it a few feet away from the curb on its casters was one thing, but seven or eight doors down?

Just then, a guy came walking by with his dog and a skateboard in one hand. Jaques asked if he could help. He sad sure, but first went to bring his dog home - then returned with an even larger skateboard. Jaques, Hjulstrom, the new owner and the dog walker got the organ up on the skateboard and they slowly, wobbily, moved it down the street:

Video by Pam Jaques:

And then they got it up seven or eight steps and into its new home:

Five minutes later, the trash guys came by, but all that was left was the usual trash.

What led somebody to throw it out? Hjulstrom says the previous owners were moving. In a discussion on the Roslindale Message Board, Cher Devitt wrote she helped her friends move the organ to the curb:

After lots of time on Facebook marketplace and EBay, there were no takers. ... It was indeed offered for free to to a jazz pianist/music professor and then listed but no one bit over the last couple of months.

She added: "Glad it has found a new home!"

Ad for a similar model from an 1892 edition of Short Stories: A Magazine of Select Fiction: