In Grand Rapids, Michigan, $129,900 not only buys you a cute one-bedroom home with a nice kitchen & hardwood floors – but they throw in a three-manual, 32-rank, 2,300-pipe organ with a three-manual console.
Keyboard Magazine contacted Michigan Hammond B-3 organ player Jim Alfredson and he visited the house to check this thing out.
Alfredson found that the listing was legit – and he had a chance to shoot some video in the house and to try out the pipe organ:
Keyboard shared the story behind the unusual house:
The organ was originally installed by the former owner of the home, Bill Tufts. Mr. Tufts was an auto mechanic who was not a player himself, but invited organists over to give house concerts and entertain friends and neighbors
It’s a 1929 Kimball, and the console sits just outside the kitchen in a sort of small dining area, while pipes run from floor to ceiling in the spare bedrooms.
Check it out and let us know what you think of this house! And if you’re looking for a house in the midwest with a massive pipe organ, check out the listing.
Intense!!!!!
Thanks for posting I enjoyed seeing this. I wish the photographers would learn how to record audio.
My dream if ever rich is to build in my home a massive pipe organ. Forget the Ferrari.
Couldn’t agree more, I will do the same if I ever get a fortune
I once got to play a 4-manual pipe organ. I can synthesize quite a bit of that tone for general purposes, but there’s nothing to compare with playing the real thing, balls-out. Like an IMAX movie, you’re totally immersed in it. I have to wonder if the neighbors can hear it enough to be annoyed. If so and it was my house, they’d be annoyed a lot.
?????!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! NUTS
the story is neither the house nor the organ, its the man
http://www.mlive.com/business/west-michigan/index.ssf/2014/10/pipe_dream_small_west_side_hou.html
european houses overpriced ?
At a moment there it felt like i was listening at beach boy’s smile….
yes….in France you would never find such a house (without the organ) for that price…….
I live in NY and it’s just as bad, trust me.
Jesus H Christ! Thant is impressive!
Amazing! There are a few dozen full pipe organs installed in homes in the US – but this has to be the tightest quarters I’ve seen.
It would almost be worth it to by the house, then re-install the pipes in a separate garage-like structure in the back yard – one with acoustic insulation, that could be opened up directly to the main house. You’d gain bedrooms – justifying the price and making it more practical while preserving the rare and beautiful organ. Keep the 3-manual console where it is.
That way when people come over to watch a performance (or a silent movie) you just throw open the doors to the pipe house. You can also hang out in the pipe house – perhaps a nice synced colored light system, skylights, etc.
Or buy the house and convert the whole thing into a recording facility. Maybe leave the upstairs bedrooms and the kitchen, so you could rent it for a week as a sort of bed and breakfast work space.
Does it have a headphone jack so I can play while my wife sleeps?
I want this house! But I live in Florida and don’t want that Michigan weather. Especially this week. I so hope a musician buys the house.
Tiny ***** Hides Massive **** Organ
Owning this house would be as cool as having your own personal aircraft carrier.
Funny trend I’m noticing, this little article about this house is the only one on the whole first page of Synthtopia that has any interest for me. I don’t have anything to do with OS X or i-anything, so the rest just don’t apply to me. I have an OS 9 computer, and even an Apple ][gs, for controlling and programming old hardware, but that’s about it. I wonder how long it’s going to be before none of the new articles have anything to do with anything I do?
Amen to that brotha!
If you’re making music on a IIGS, good for you – but you might be in the minority.
Some of us like to upgrade a couple times a decade.