Music to the Ears!

In 1922, Stanley Russell Waterman joined the faculty at Kingswood School to teach Latin and music until his retirement in 1964. His music courses included music appreciation and fundamentals, choral training, choir and programs of Chapel music. On specific days of the week, throughout the year, students began each day in chapel with the music of Mr. Waterman, specifically, preludes, hymns and postludes. Early on he played an upright piano at morning assemblies in the dining hall. Later, he played on a Steinway Grand on the Seaverns Hall stage until a Hammond Organ was delivered at the start of the fall term in 1935. It was a gift from a parent of two Kingswood boys at the time. “Electronic organs were much more of a curiosity in those days and the instrument was received with a great deal of interest as well as gratitude.”

As was explained in the Kingswood News,

 “This organ, which has only recently been placed upon the market, is an innovation 

   in the field of organ manufacture. There are no pipes which produce the various

   tones but each tone is created through vacuum tubes in a power cabinet where the  

   sound is amplified through speaker cones. The sound produced resembles almost  

   perfectly the tones of a pipe organ.”

The organ console and power cabinet were placed in the gallery of Seaverns Hall. On the first day of fall term, the school was treated to Mr. Waterman playing the new organ, accompanied 

by the Kingswood choir singing loud and clear. Oh what music to the ears!

Dr. Wayne Pierce, retired faculty member (music teacher and former Art Department Chair), 

kindly took the time to meet with me to discuss the history of the Skinner organ that replaced 

the Hammond organ. He explained that the Skinner organ was generously donated by Ms. Holly Soby, during the renovation of Seaverns Hall in 1986. The installation of the elegant console sitting on the main floor and pipes hidden in the balcony was no small feat. The console is on a roll-out platform with cables connecting all the lines. A local company was called in to make it playable but it became too expensive to complete the project. Fortunately, it was playable, but with limitations. It is a player organ but the “player part” was never installed. The organ was first played for the KO community at the Candlelight Concert in 1987. Former faculty member, David Almond, played a Prelude on the organ at the dedication ceremony of Seaverns Hall in 1987. As time passed, the Skinner organ became forgotten until our very own KO students, David Marottolo ‘18 and Nate Welsh ‘22, took an interest in playing it. 

I had the recent opportunity to take a tour of the balcony area to see the Skinner organ pipes, now covered in a layer of dust, just waiting for the day when they can once again bellow out their sounds as music to the ears.

(Information from Kingswood Fifty Years 1916-1966, Thank you, Wayne Pierce!)

Thanks so much to Rachael Ryan, Class of 1988, for sending me some wonderful memories of her time at the middle school in response to my last article-

“I lived so close that I was able to ride my bike to school. I remember parking my bike and running into the bomb shelter to get to my locker so I could get ready for first period. 

I remember learning how to play field hockey and lacrosse on the field and I still coach both sports to this day. I have so many wonderful memories of teachers like Mr. Pandolfi and Mr. Weber. And of course, Ms. Bernatchez and ISP. I loved that class and she was an amazing teacher.”