Spreckles Pavillion And Organ

Dr. Carol Williams, Director of Music

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The Spreckles Organ and Pavilion

My friend Karen and I went to Balboa Park on Friday to view a Rembrandt exhibit at the Timken Art Museum. As we entered the park, we heard the Spreckles Organ being played. This was indeed a rare event and opportunity. The organ is usually played only on Sunday afternoons at 2:00 p.m. for a weekly hour concert June through August. Dr. Carol Williams is commissioned to play the organ. The concert being presented was for the enjoyment and education of school children and titled "The Mighty Organ, the King of Musical Instruments". The orator explained the numerous other musical instrument sounds the organ could produce as the organist played a few notes of each instrument. One could have imagined a stage with a large orchestral accompaniment as the music streamed forth. What a sound!

The Spreckles organ was donated in 1914 for The Panama Exhibition by John D. and Adolph Spreckles. It contains 4,530 pipes ranging in size from a pencil to 32 feet. What an amazing sound!