Bird Studio Organ
Hall Organ Company (1929)
No longer extant
Originally named the Organ Studio (and later often referred to as the “Music Chapel”), this elegant space remain’s the Occidental College Music Department’s primary recital hall. Designed by Myron Hunt in a style reminiscent of California mission architecture, the hall features exposed beams and a rosette window high on the south wall. The wooden benches seat approximately 60 people.
The two manual, 10-rank organ was a gift Almer Newhall, an Occidental trustee and the president of the San Francisco Chamber of Commerce. It was manufactured by the Hall Organ Company of West Haven, Connecticut and was the first organ installed on the Eagle Rock campus. The organ was regularly used for both lessons and performances, though for the latter purpose it was largely supplanted once the much larger E.M. Skinner organ was installed in Thorne Hall 1938. The organ was significantly altered in the early 1960s by Piper Organs, Inc., under the direction of Kenneth Simpson. In the early 1980s, the instrument was removed and presumably sold for parts.
