Packard Organ (Harmonium)

The Great Chicago Fire may have been the best thing that ever happened to Fort Wayne music lovers. That may sound strange, but consider this: one of the people who lost everything when the blaze leveled the Windy City on Oct. 9, 1871, was organ-maker Isaac T. Packard.

Legend has it that Packard boarded the next train east and told the conductor to let him off when his money ran out. Packard got as far as Fort Wayne, where he started the Fort Wayne Organ Co. on Nov. 20 1871. in 1899 the name was changed to the Packard Piano Co. The Fort Wayne Organ Co. set up shop on Fairfield Avenue and began manufacturing organs which are the most beautiful, attractive and simple in construction of any organ ever offered, according to a story in the Fort Wayne Gazette in March 1881. The newspaper reported that the locally built instruments possess a clear, brilliant and sweet tone and were especially popular among missionaries.

So popular were the Packard-built reed organs that England’s Queen Victoria supposedly ordered one. The company became quite successful, hitting its high note in the 1920s. Then the boom of the 1920s turned into the Depression of the 1930s, and the Packard Piano Co. (as it now was) fell on hard times. The last piano rolled out of the Packard plant on Feb. 6, 1930. The Packard trademark was used by other manufacturers, but the instrument was never again made in Fort Wayne. The Packard Piano factory was torn down in the early 1930s.

61 keys, 12 registers Manufactured between 1880 – 90 : Height: 192cm, Width: 120cm, Depth: 60cm

“A harmonium such as this was used to create the alternative version of ‘Enjoy The Silence’ (L12 BONG 18) – featuring just Harmonium and voice, it formed the basis of Martin’s original demo for the song, before we turned it into a disco stomper! I purchased the ‘Packard ‘ organ about 15 years ago from an antiques market in Sussex, UK. I don’t really know the full history of this particular instrument but when I saw it, I just had to have it. I was transported back to my youth when I would spend weekends at my Aunt Flo’s house just off the Harrow Rd in London. She owned a very similar organ which was kept in her bathroom and I would spend hours up there intoxicated by the strange and wonderful machine, experimenting with the stops, discovering the unique creaking breathy sound of the old beast and trying to imagine who could have invented such a contraption. I’m loath to part with this fine example but space is needed and I have had many hours of enjoyment already, and plenty of sing songs when people have visited and been intrigued. It is quite hard work keeping pumping away with the feet while you play but the up side is a great work-out for the old calves and thighs!”