Council Decides Pipe Organ Is Too Big to Keep

After three years of discussion, the La Canada Flintridge City Council on Monday decided to sell the historic pipe organ that it was given in 1987.

The rare organ, capable of carrying the sound of a 90-piece orchestra to 5,000 listeners, has been something of an albatross for the quiet, suburban community, which lacks an appropriate recital facility for such an instrument.

Ever since Frank Lanterman, the late assemblyman who once played the organ professionally, rescued the instrument from a defunct San Francisco theater 26 years ago it has been housed in a recital hall at the Lanterman home.

When the last of the pioneering Lanterman family died in 1987 the organ was bequeathed to the city, along with the stark, acoustically inferior hall that was built for it. The hall is awkwardly attached to a 1915 Craftsman-style house, which was also donated to the city and which the city would like to save.

“The word is out that the City of La Canada Flintridge is ready to seriously negotiate relocation of the Lanterman organ,” said Mayor John W. Hastings just before the council voted 4 to 1 to direct officials to seek a buyer for the historic instrument.

Despite regrets voiced by all of the council members, they said they could not justify the expense of muffling the sound of an instrument so powerful that its vibrations can be felt while sitting on the street curb in front of the house.

The sole dissenting vote was cast by Councilman Christopher Valente, who said the organ is more important as an historical attraction in the community than the Lanterman house.

The organ was built in 1926 for the 4,651-seat Fox Theater in San Francisco. It was purchased for $15,000 by Lanterman after the theater closed in 1963. Collectors estimate the organ is worth about $100,000 today.

Lanterman built a recital hall addition to his home with seating for 50 to accommodate the organ, whose fans, blowers and relays occupy seven rooms of the house. The organ is maintained regularly by the Lanterman Foundation, a nonprofit corporation established by the city, and is allowed to be played only for small audiences.

Structural work to protect the organ and stifle its sound from neighbors could cost the city and the foundation $500,000, according to a consultant’s report released this week. Even with the work, the organ’s true sound qualities could never be appreciated fully in such a relatively cramped studio, experts said.

James G. Spencer, an architectural consultant to the city, said noise level tests of the organ found it to be “so loud that it should not be played.” He described a deteriorating wood roof over the music studio as “like a big speaker.”

City Manager George Caswell said the structural work necessary to soundproof the recital hall not only would be “very expensive,” but “would be out of character with the neighborhood and probably not acceptable or affordable.”

The Lanterman organ is a Crawford Special, among the largest and best built by Wurlitzer. Only three others still exist in the United States--in theaters in Detroit and St. Louis and in the Civic Center in Wichita, Kan.

La Canada officials said they would like to find some place where the Lanterman organ could be appreciated by the public.

“It seems a shame that so few people can hear it where it is,” said Sue Schechter of the Lanterman Foundation. “I would rather see it go somewhere to a public place where it could be heard and enjoyed.”

Councilwoman Joan C. Feehan compared the city’s ownership of the Lanterman organ to “keeping a tiger in your back yard. They’re rare and dangerous and need proper care,” she said.

Possible relocation sites being considered include Pauley Pavilion at UCLA, USC and the Alex Theatre in Glendale.

But June Dougherty, a community activist, told the council on Monday that no site may be feasible. She said Pauley Pavilion “is like a barn. That would be equally as dumb a location as the ridiculous place it is in now.” She urged the city to consider ways to keep the organ within the community, even at the Lanterman House at 4420 Encinas Drive if no other place can be found.

The council gave the foundation 90 days to try to find a buyer and report back to the city.