When the Gunton Temple Memorial Presbyterian Church built their new building in the area that was both known as Church Hill and Society Hill in the early 1920’s, it was a boom time, but they were frugal Scotch Presbyterians, rather tight with their money. The building was sufficient but not elaborate. The church owned a large John Brown organ in the old building, two manuals and 18 stops. In order to have as large an organ as possible, they wanted to use all the pipes of that organ in the organ for the new building.

Their consultant was Dr. Edgar Priest, organist of the Washington Cathedral, who had met Theodore Lewis and William Hitchcock back in 1915 when they brought down the first organ for the Cathedral, which at that time consisted only of the Bethlehem Chapel. Knowing of their work, Priest recommended Lewis & Hitchcock to build the new organ for the new Gunton Church building, keeping the best pipes of the John Brown organ. The organ was built having three manuals and 24 stops; the entire Choir division and the Swell reed stops were new, along with the console and all the windchests and mechanisms; only the pipes were retained from the John Brown organ, including the elaborately painted façade pipes.

In keeping with the musical demands of the time, the tonal design was broad and dignified. The accessories available to the organist were minimal, as the demands of the time were not as heavy.

Gunton Temple moved to Bethesda in 1965, and the building was purchased by Canaan Baptist Church. In 1975 the basement flooded and the organ blower carried moisture up into the action of the organ, making the organ very sensitive to changes in humidity.

When the age of the organ required major work, discussions were begun with the church about what might be possible. Our recommendations included providing a new console with all the current solid-state accessories so useful to the organist in providing the right sound for the music. The action in the windchests was so damaged by humidity that we recommended replacing them with modern electric action. The pedal pipes were split from humidity damage and crowded the chamber, making tuning access difficult. We recommended replacing the pedal stops with digital replacements, and making the existing resources as flexible as possible. Space has also been provided for additional stops to be added in the future.

The result is a reliable organ that can easily provide the proper accompaniment for soloists, choirs and congregational singing.

Walker Technical Products again provided us custom built and voiced digital stops: