Woah: Tucked inside this otherwise modest time capsule house — a 1900 single-owner home now for sale in Grand Rapids — is a 1929 Kimball 2,300-pipe pipe organ — a feature that is valued at up to a million dollars. I can’t imagine anyone would ever guess. Thanks to reader Lucas for this hot tip — and click on through for the answer.
Update March 2015: Sold! Read the story here.
Inside: a 2,300-pipe pipe organ
From the listing:
This is TRULY a once in a lifetime opportunity. This home features, most magnificently, a 2,300 pipe, wind powered pipe organ. It’s 32 ”ranks” provides more musical ability than most churches have installed. This most certainly is RARE OPPORTUNITY. If purchased and installed brand new, this would cost between $800 THOUSAND and ONE MILLION dollars. The addition was constructed solely to house this gorgeous piece of professionally installed craftsmanship. Oh yes, the rest of the home is extremely well maintained with many updates and features, 1 bedroom, 1.5 bath, hot water heat, 2 car heated and cooled garage, underground sprinkling, enclosed front porch and back porch, insulated windows and includes the stove, refrigerator, washer, dryer, and pipe organ.
Ummm…. I watched… I don’t understand where the 2,300 pipes fit, exactly. I guess, since there is just one bedroom — the rest of the house is taken up by the pipe organ.
Certainly a sweet modest house by any other measure. What a delight!
Thank you, Mark Douglas Real Estate, for permission to show these photos and the video, all taken by Mark Douglas.
Link love:
PF Flyer says
PS to a comment above…a rank is a set of pipes that has the same number of pipes as the keyboard has keys. A rank of pipes can be designed to sound like flutes, trumpets or strings to name a few.
Pipe organ sizes are usually described by the number of ranks they have and not the total amount of pipes they contain (these definitions are slightly simplified so organ nerds out there don’t write me). A 32 rank organ would be nice size for a medium sized church but not a cathedral type space.
PF Flyer says
As a church organist I would love to have a practice instrument in my house rather than having to drive to a church to practice all the time. As a practice instrument, this thing is over the top and would require more maintenance each year than the house. In this digital age you can have a digital instrument built that takes up far less space and money and has samples of instruments from all over the world to select from. Not the same as a fine pipe organ in a resonant space, but a lot more practical.
Schnitzelbank says
I studied piano at a small college in mid-Michigan. I reposted this far and wide in the college/music community out there. Hopefully it will continue to be played! Beautiful instrument in an…interesting venue!
pam kueber says
Thanks, Schnitzelbank!
Laura's Last Ditch Vintage Kitchenwares says
I love the juxtaposition of the grand pipe organ and the aging La-Z-Boy. It’s so delightful, I wish this house were mine.
Dori Lucas says
I grew up with one in my home too. Actually, its much bigger than this one. My father was a theatre organist and bought his pipe organ from a church. We had amazing parties. The loudness is easily controlled when installed by professionals.
My father passed away in April and we have the organ for sale for $35,000.00 if anyone is interested! That’s quite a bargain!
Jay says
I bet he picked up that organ for a song! Nyuck, Nyuck!
Seriously, this “asset” could be either a plus or a minus for the sale.
Great story. Sort of like having a bolder in your basement that the house was built around. Thanks to Mr. Douglas for the backstory.
House appears to be in great shape.
Jay says
umm.. a boulder in the basement, left out the u
Jacki says
I grew up in a church with an incredible pipe organ. Bach never sounded better when played on one of these.
John Smith says
SOLD.
sherree says
Completely off topic: I doubt very much if this home was built in 1975 as stated in the listing. Nothing nods to that time period; it looks much older 🙂
pam kueber says
See agent Mark Douglas’ comment just added, clarifying the date of the house.
Mark Douglas says
The owner of this masterpiece was an auto mechanic by trade. He could not play at all. He was completely enamored with pipe organs and would travel to hear them played. He purchased additional land from the neighbors in order to build the addition on the right of the home to house the pipes. The “blower” is in the basement of the home. The addition goes from the basement to a cathedral ceiling. The longest pipe is 17ft long. It was built with much insulation, so the neighbors can’t hear it much if at all. I did notice that I could hear it outside during the loudest parts of a song but not much. Probably not any more than your average church would leak sound. We had a typo in the age of the structure, it was more like 1900 according to the basement and the surrounding properties. It is a Kimball organ that was donated to a church in Muskegon, MI, fell into disrepair, was purchase by the owner (recently deceased, thus selling the home) then added onto by a couple of local technicians who befriended this individual. That’s how it all got started…. with a little friendship that bloomed into a national newsworthy project. Sorry I won’t be able to participate actively in this discussion, as you can imagine, there are a lot of sites and people pulling my attention at the moment, on top of my regular work flow. Enjoy guys, and thanks for helping spread the word. 🙂