Organ Builder William Boone Fleming was born in New Brunswick, Canada, on November 2, 1849.He began work in organ building for George Ryder on October 4, 1874 in Boston.On July 26, 1881, he went to work for the Roosevelt firm in its Philadelphia branch and in 1889 moved to the New York factory.Frank Roosevelt sold the business, but not the name, in 1893 to Farrand & Votey.Fleming worked for this firm in Detroit until 1900, when the business moved to Garwood, New Jersey under the name Votey Organ Co.
In September 1900, Fleming went to California, where he joined Murray M. Harris.The first Harris instrument with which he was involved was that built for Stanford University.The Harris firm was reorganized in 1903 as the Los Angeles Art Organ Co., Fleming becoming superintendent and director.It was this firm which built in 1904 the 140-stop Louisiana Purchase Exposition Organ to [organ architect George Ashdown] Audsley's basic specification.In 1905 the business was moved to Hoboken, N.J., and a year later was reorganized as the Electrolian Organ Co., of which Fleming was vice-president and superintendent and of which nothing further is apparently known today.
Following the Exposition, the organ, which had been intended to go to Kansas City, lay in storage until 1909, when on the advice of George Till it was purchased by John Wanamaker.Fleming was hired to supervise the installation in the Philadelphia store and began work there on September 1, 1909.Henceforth his role was that of designer of action work, George Till being chiefly concerned with tonal matters.In 1913 there began in the Wanamaker Shop, located on the top floor of that vast building, the construction of a large addition to the instrument and in 1924, yet another.Fleming retired in 1927 to Pasadena, California, and died in Altadena, California, at the age of ninety on April 26, 1940.
The collaboration of Fleming and Till was an uneasy one.Both were stubborn, egocentric men.They had begun the organ business in the days of tracker action (Fleming with Ryder, Till with Odell), but had readily taken up electro-pneumatic action by the turn of the century.Fleming's action work was "massive."He insisted on the finest materials and generally used "five screws where four would do."He boasted that his magnets would sustain a weight of ten pounds, which was true but functionally quite unnecessary.His design for the present six-manual console allowed a man to walk inside.Till scornfully asked, "Where are you going to put the toilet, Fleming?"When charged that some of his action work was inaccessible for repair, he retorted, raising his right arm in a characteristic angry gesture, "Damn it, I build it so it doesn't need repair."He demanded sterling silver for both members of all contacts.His junction boards were made of machine-threaded brass plates, let into maple panels.The chests of the 1904 organ were of the ventil type, and only under pressure did he adopt in the later additions a modified pitman chest.The wind supply was copious, even extravagant, the several blowers having, as of 1928, over 150 horsepower.In 1924 [English organ builder] Henry Willis III visited the shop and expressed surprise that so much horse power was needed, as compared with his Liverpool Cathedral organ, which was blown by far less.Fleming's right arm went up as he replied, "Willis, any thing you can do in England, we can do here."Some of the 1904 pneumatics sized with egg-white, are still in use, whereas those of the 1927 combination action which was built by an American commercial firm [Welte] have long since deteriorated.
Although George Till's province was supposed to be that of tonal work, he sometimes produced brilliant solutions to mechanical problems.The first winter the organ was used in the Philadelphia store the heating system dried out the woodwork, causing numerous splits in the wind trunks and chests.It was feared that the organ would be a total loss.Till proposed that a small stream of water be introduced into each blower intake.Fleming objected that it would ruin the organ.Till countered that the situation couldn't be any worse than it was. The experiment was tried; it worked; and is still working today.
Fleming was a little man but he had great energy.On one occasion, in order to win a point about chest construction, he came to the shop very early for several days and single-handedly milled the lumber according to his specifications and then confronted his opponents with a fait accompli.He invariably wore a white necktie, which belied his true character.He had made many of his own tools, including an ingenious geared screwdriver that turned a right angle, and beautiful tools they were.In the early 1920s he suffered a shock, which would have put most men out of action, but he presently appeared in the shop on crutches, soon completely recovered, and was as usual the first man to appear in the morning and the last to leave at night.He used to boast that he had never fired a workman.Perhaps not, but he made life so miserable for the incompetent that they quit.He was opposed to drinking, not on moral grounds but because he had observed that workmen who drank were undependable.Nevertheless, he hired at Wanamaker's a cockney English pipemaker whom he had known at Roosevelt's and who was an unusually fine woodworker.Once a month this fellow would go on a weeklong bender, and Fleming, knowing that he could not find as good a man elsewhere, grimly tolerated the absence.
As a young man Fleming had read Tom Paine, whose influence, augmented by some unhappy dealings with the clergy, led him to hold churchmen in low repute.He had a tart, sardonic, sometimes ribald, sense of humor.He relished a tale of once going to the Hook & Hastings factory in Kendal green to look up a youthful acquaintance.On inquiring if the man was then working there, he was told, "Ah, we had to let him go; he used to use church pews for improper purposes."
As a craftsman Fleming ranked among the finest.His ideas about action were ultra-conservative, though it never occurred to him to revert to tracker action.His musical sense was nil and his tonal ideas negligible.But the had integrity-integrity of craft and integrity in human relationships.One always knew exactly where he stood.His retirement from the Wanamaker shop at the age of 79 was the result of his unwillingness to compromise on points, which he deemed important, and he offered his resignation with stoic pride.Rodman Wanamaker presented him with a handsome loving cup, and on December 17, 1928, the night before he left Philadelphia, Charles Courboin and Mary Vogt arranged a farewell dinner party.There some of his shop associates, mellowed by (bootlegged) martinis, wine and benedictine, buried past differences and bade him an affectionate farewell.
In September 1900, Fleming went to California, where he joined Murray M. Harris.The first Harris instrument with which he was involved was that built for Stanford University.The Harris firm was reorganized in 1903 as the Los Angeles Art Organ Co., Fleming becoming superintendent and director.It was this firm which built in 1904 the 140-stop Louisiana Purchase Exposition Organ to [organ architect George Ashdown] Audsley's basic specification.In 1905 the business was moved to Hoboken, N.J., and a year later was reorganized as the Electrolian Organ Co., of which Fleming was vice-president and superintendent and of which nothing further is apparently known today.
Following the Exposition, the organ, which had been intended to go to Kansas City, lay in storage until 1909, when on the advice of George Till it was purchased by John Wanamaker.Fleming was hired to supervise the installation in the Philadelphia store and began work there on September 1, 1909.Henceforth his role was that of designer of action work, George Till being chiefly concerned with tonal matters.In 1913 there began in the Wanamaker Shop, located on the top floor of that vast building, the construction of a large addition to the instrument and in 1924, yet another.Fleming retired in 1927 to Pasadena, California, and died in Altadena, California, at the age of ninety on April 26, 1940.
The collaboration of Fleming and Till was an uneasy one.Both were stubborn, egocentric men.They had begun the organ business in the days of tracker action (Fleming with Ryder, Till with Odell), but had readily taken up electro-pneumatic action by the turn of the century.Fleming's action work was "massive."He insisted on the finest materials and generally used "five screws where four would do."He boasted that his magnets would sustain a weight of ten pounds, which was true but functionally quite unnecessary.His design for the present six-manual console allowed a man to walk inside.Till scornfully asked, "Where are you going to put the toilet, Fleming?"When charged that some of his action work was inaccessible for repair, he retorted, raising his right arm in a characteristic angry gesture, "Damn it, I build it so it doesn't need repair."He demanded sterling silver for both members of all contacts.His junction boards were made of machine-threaded brass plates, let into maple panels.The chests of the 1904 organ were of the ventil type, and only under pressure did he adopt in the later additions a modified pitman chest.The wind supply was copious, even extravagant, the several blowers having, as of 1928, over 150 horsepower.In 1924 [English organ builder] Henry Willis III visited the shop and expressed surprise that so much horse power was needed, as compared with his Liverpool Cathedral organ, which was blown by far less.Fleming's right arm went up as he replied, "Willis, any thing you can do in England, we can do here."Some of the 1904 pneumatics sized with egg-white, are still in use, whereas those of the 1927 combination action which was built by an American commercial firm [Welte] have long since deteriorated.
Although George Till's province was supposed to be that of tonal work, he sometimes produced brilliant solutions to mechanical problems.The first winter the organ was used in the Philadelphia store the heating system dried out the woodwork, causing numerous splits in the wind trunks and chests.It was feared that the organ would be a total loss.Till proposed that a small stream of water be introduced into each blower intake.Fleming objected that it would ruin the organ.Till countered that the situation couldn't be any worse than it was. The experiment was tried; it worked; and is still working today.
Fleming was a little man but he had great energy.On one occasion, in order to win a point about chest construction, he came to the shop very early for several days and single-handedly milled the lumber according to his specifications and then confronted his opponents with a fait accompli.He invariably wore a white necktie, which belied his true character.He had made many of his own tools, including an ingenious geared screwdriver that turned a right angle, and beautiful tools they were.In the early 1920s he suffered a shock, which would have put most men out of action, but he presently appeared in the shop on crutches, soon completely recovered, and was as usual the first man to appear in the morning and the last to leave at night.He used to boast that he had never fired a workman.Perhaps not, but he made life so miserable for the incompetent that they quit.He was opposed to drinking, not on moral grounds but because he had observed that workmen who drank were undependable.Nevertheless, he hired at Wanamaker's a cockney English pipemaker whom he had known at Roosevelt's and who was an unusually fine woodworker.Once a month this fellow would go on a weeklong bender, and Fleming, knowing that he could not find as good a man elsewhere, grimly tolerated the absence.
As a young man Fleming had read Tom Paine, whose influence, augmented by some unhappy dealings with the clergy, led him to hold churchmen in low repute.He had a tart, sardonic, sometimes ribald, sense of humor.He relished a tale of once going to the Hook & Hastings factory in Kendal green to look up a youthful acquaintance.On inquiring if the man was then working there, he was told, "Ah, we had to let him go; he used to use church pews for improper purposes."
As a craftsman Fleming ranked among the finest.His ideas about action were ultra-conservative, though it never occurred to him to revert to tracker action.His musical sense was nil and his tonal ideas negligible.But the had integrity-integrity of craft and integrity in human relationships.One always knew exactly where he stood.His retirement from the Wanamaker shop at the age of 79 was the result of his unwillingness to compromise on points, which he deemed important, and he offered his resignation with stoic pride.Rodman Wanamaker presented him with a handsome loving cup, and on December 17, 1928, the night before he left Philadelphia, Charles Courboin and Mary Vogt arranged a farewell dinner party.There some of his shop associates, mellowed by (bootlegged) martinis, wine and benedictine, buried past differences and bade him an affectionate farewell.
Organ Builder William Boone Fleming was born in New Brunswick, Canada, on November 2, 1849.He began work in organ building for George Ryder on October 4, 1874 in Boston.On July 26, 1881, he went to work for the Roosevelt firm in its Philadelphia branch and in 1889 moved to the New York factory.Frank Roosevelt sold the business, but not the name, in 1893 to Farrand & Votey.Fleming worked for this firm in Detroit until 1900, when the business moved to Garwood, New Jersey under the name Votey Organ Co.
In September 1900, Fleming went to California, where he joined Murray M. Harris.The first Harris instrument with which he was involved was that built for Stanford University.The Harris firm was reorganized in 1903 as the Los Angeles Art Organ Co., Fleming becoming superintendent and director.It was this firm which built in 1904 the 140-stop Louisiana Purchase Exposition Organ to [organ architect George Ashdown] Audsley's basic specification.In 1905 the business was moved to Hoboken, N.J., and a year later was reorganized as the Electrolian Organ Co., of which Fleming was vice-president and superintendent and of which nothing further is apparently known today.
Following the Exposition, the organ, which had been intended to go to Kansas City, lay in storage until 1909, when on the advice of George Till it was purchased by John Wanamaker.Fleming was hired to supervise the installation in the Philadelphia store and began work there on September 1, 1909.Henceforth his role was that of designer of action work, George Till being chiefly concerned with tonal matters.In 1913 there began in the Wanamaker Shop, located on the top floor of that vast building, the construction of a large addition to the instrument and in 1924, yet another.Fleming retired in 1927 to Pasadena, California, and died in Altadena, California, at the age of ninety on April 26, 1940.
The collaboration of Fleming and Till was an uneasy one.Both were stubborn, egocentric men.They had begun the organ business in the days of tracker action (Fleming with Ryder, Till with Odell), but had readily taken up electro-pneumatic action by the turn of the century.Fleming's action work was "massive."He insisted on the finest materials and generally used "five screws where four would do."He boasted that his magnets would sustain a weight of ten pounds, which was true but functionally quite unnecessary.His design for the present six-manual console allowed a man to walk inside.Till scornfully asked, "Where are you going to put the toilet, Fleming?"When charged that some of his action work was inaccessible for repair, he retorted, raising his right arm in a characteristic angry gesture, "Damn it, I build it so it doesn't need repair."He demanded sterling silver for both members of all contacts.His junction boards were made of machine-threaded brass plates, let into maple panels.The chests of the 1904 organ were of the ventil type, and only under pressure did he adopt in the later additions a modified pitman chest.The wind supply was copious, even extravagant, the several blowers having, as of 1928, over 150 horsepower.In 1924 [English organ builder] Henry Willis III visited the shop and expressed surprise that so much horse power was needed, as compared with his Liverpool Cathedral organ, which was blown by far less.Fleming's right arm went up as he replied, "Willis, any thing you can do in England, we can do here."Some of the 1904 pneumatics sized with egg-white, are still in use, whereas those of the 1927 combination action which was built by an American commercial firm [Welte] have long since deteriorated.
Although George Till's province was supposed to be that of tonal work, he sometimes produced brilliant solutions to mechanical problems.The first winter the organ was used in the Philadelphia store the heating system dried out the woodwork, causing numerous splits in the wind trunks and chests.It was feared that the organ would be a total loss.Till proposed that a small stream of water be introduced into each blower intake.Fleming objected that it would ruin the organ.Till countered that the situation couldn't be any worse than it was. The experiment was tried; it worked; and is still working today.
Fleming was a little man but he had great energy.On one occasion, in order to win a point about chest construction, he came to the shop very early for several days and single-handedly milled the lumber according to his specifications and then confronted his opponents with a fait accompli.He invariably wore a white necktie, which belied his true character.He had made many of his own tools, including an ingenious geared screwdriver that turned a right angle, and beautiful tools they were.In the early 1920s he suffered a shock, which would have put most men out of action, but he presently appeared in the shop on crutches, soon completely recovered, and was as usual the first man to appear in the morning and the last to leave at night.He used to boast that he had never fired a workman.Perhaps not, but he made life so miserable for the incompetent that they quit.He was opposed to drinking, not on moral grounds but because he had observed that workmen who drank were undependable.Nevertheless, he hired at Wanamaker's a cockney English pipemaker whom he had known at Roosevelt's and who was an unusually fine woodworker.Once a month this fellow would go on a weeklong bender, and Fleming, knowing that he could not find as good a man elsewhere, grimly tolerated the absence.
As a young man Fleming had read Tom Paine, whose influence, augmented by some unhappy dealings with the clergy, led him to hold churchmen in low repute.He had a tart, sardonic, sometimes ribald, sense of humor.He relished a tale of once going to the Hook & Hastings factory in Kendal green to look up a youthful acquaintance.On inquiring if the man was then working there, he was told, "Ah, we had to let him go; he used to use church pews for improper purposes."
As a craftsman Fleming ranked among the finest.His ideas about action were ultra-conservative, though it never occurred to him to revert to tracker action.His musical sense was nil and his tonal ideas negligible.But the had integrity-integrity of craft and integrity in human relationships.One always knew exactly where he stood.His retirement from the Wanamaker shop at the age of 79 was the result of his unwillingness to compromise on points, which he deemed important, and he offered his resignation with stoic pride.Rodman Wanamaker presented him with a handsome loving cup, and on December 17, 1928, the night before he left Philadelphia, Charles Courboin and Mary Vogt arranged a farewell dinner party.There some of his shop associates, mellowed by (bootlegged) martinis, wine and benedictine, buried past differences and bade him an affectionate farewell.
In September 1900, Fleming went to California, where he joined Murray M. Harris.The first Harris instrument with which he was involved was that built for Stanford University.The Harris firm was reorganized in 1903 as the Los Angeles Art Organ Co., Fleming becoming superintendent and director.It was this firm which built in 1904 the 140-stop Louisiana Purchase Exposition Organ to [organ architect George Ashdown] Audsley's basic specification.In 1905 the business was moved to Hoboken, N.J., and a year later was reorganized as the Electrolian Organ Co., of which Fleming was vice-president and superintendent and of which nothing further is apparently known today.
Following the Exposition, the organ, which had been intended to go to Kansas City, lay in storage until 1909, when on the advice of George Till it was purchased by John Wanamaker.Fleming was hired to supervise the installation in the Philadelphia store and began work there on September 1, 1909.Henceforth his role was that of designer of action work, George Till being chiefly concerned with tonal matters.In 1913 there began in the Wanamaker Shop, located on the top floor of that vast building, the construction of a large addition to the instrument and in 1924, yet another.Fleming retired in 1927 to Pasadena, California, and died in Altadena, California, at the age of ninety on April 26, 1940.
The collaboration of Fleming and Till was an uneasy one.Both were stubborn, egocentric men.They had begun the organ business in the days of tracker action (Fleming with Ryder, Till with Odell), but had readily taken up electro-pneumatic action by the turn of the century.Fleming's action work was "massive."He insisted on the finest materials and generally used "five screws where four would do."He boasted that his magnets would sustain a weight of ten pounds, which was true but functionally quite unnecessary.His design for the present six-manual console allowed a man to walk inside.Till scornfully asked, "Where are you going to put the toilet, Fleming?"When charged that some of his action work was inaccessible for repair, he retorted, raising his right arm in a characteristic angry gesture, "Damn it, I build it so it doesn't need repair."He demanded sterling silver for both members of all contacts.His junction boards were made of machine-threaded brass plates, let into maple panels.The chests of the 1904 organ were of the ventil type, and only under pressure did he adopt in the later additions a modified pitman chest.The wind supply was copious, even extravagant, the several blowers having, as of 1928, over 150 horsepower.In 1924 [English organ builder] Henry Willis III visited the shop and expressed surprise that so much horse power was needed, as compared with his Liverpool Cathedral organ, which was blown by far less.Fleming's right arm went up as he replied, "Willis, any thing you can do in England, we can do here."Some of the 1904 pneumatics sized with egg-white, are still in use, whereas those of the 1927 combination action which was built by an American commercial firm [Welte] have long since deteriorated.
Although George Till's province was supposed to be that of tonal work, he sometimes produced brilliant solutions to mechanical problems.The first winter the organ was used in the Philadelphia store the heating system dried out the woodwork, causing numerous splits in the wind trunks and chests.It was feared that the organ would be a total loss.Till proposed that a small stream of water be introduced into each blower intake.Fleming objected that it would ruin the organ.Till countered that the situation couldn't be any worse than it was. The experiment was tried; it worked; and is still working today.
Fleming was a little man but he had great energy.On one occasion, in order to win a point about chest construction, he came to the shop very early for several days and single-handedly milled the lumber according to his specifications and then confronted his opponents with a fait accompli.He invariably wore a white necktie, which belied his true character.He had made many of his own tools, including an ingenious geared screwdriver that turned a right angle, and beautiful tools they were.In the early 1920s he suffered a shock, which would have put most men out of action, but he presently appeared in the shop on crutches, soon completely recovered, and was as usual the first man to appear in the morning and the last to leave at night.He used to boast that he had never fired a workman.Perhaps not, but he made life so miserable for the incompetent that they quit.He was opposed to drinking, not on moral grounds but because he had observed that workmen who drank were undependable.Nevertheless, he hired at Wanamaker's a cockney English pipemaker whom he had known at Roosevelt's and who was an unusually fine woodworker.Once a month this fellow would go on a weeklong bender, and Fleming, knowing that he could not find as good a man elsewhere, grimly tolerated the absence.
As a young man Fleming had read Tom Paine, whose influence, augmented by some unhappy dealings with the clergy, led him to hold churchmen in low repute.He had a tart, sardonic, sometimes ribald, sense of humor.He relished a tale of once going to the Hook & Hastings factory in Kendal green to look up a youthful acquaintance.On inquiring if the man was then working there, he was told, "Ah, we had to let him go; he used to use church pews for improper purposes."
As a craftsman Fleming ranked among the finest.His ideas about action were ultra-conservative, though it never occurred to him to revert to tracker action.His musical sense was nil and his tonal ideas negligible.But the had integrity-integrity of craft and integrity in human relationships.One always knew exactly where he stood.His retirement from the Wanamaker shop at the age of 79 was the result of his unwillingness to compromise on points, which he deemed important, and he offered his resignation with stoic pride.Rodman Wanamaker presented him with a handsome loving cup, and on December 17, 1928, the night before he left Philadelphia, Charles Courboin and Mary Vogt arranged a farewell dinner party.There some of his shop associates, mellowed by (bootlegged) martinis, wine and benedictine, buried past differences and bade him an affectionate farewell.
Gravesite Details
Family marker is Fleming Robinson cross. Individual marker has likely become overgrown.
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