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Welcome to the Unitarian Universalist Society of Iowa City
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From Within These Walls
Celebrating 100 Years at 10 South Gilbert |
UUSIC Furnishings – A Link to Our Rich History
Jeanette Carter |
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Most of us have furniture, photographs, dishes, or other memorabilia passed down through generations that we treasure for the connections they provide to our family’s past. So it is with the furnishings of our UUSIC building—they are a link to our rich history.
In 1983 our dedicated and very knowledgeable UUSIC historian, Mary Bell Glick, recorded a wealth of information about the origins of many of the furnishings in our building in her publication Furnishings and Friends, 75 Years—1908 to 1983. Our former minister, Thomas Mikelson, contributed several chapters to the contents. It is from this booklet that we share the history of some of our most treasured furnishings.
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Several items were in place when the building was dedicated in 1908. They include the velvet collection bags, the marble-top table often used in the chancel to hold flowers, two high-back chairs, a chancel lectern, and a library table, now located near the west entrance of the sanctuary.
The largest piece of furniture is the “ushers’ cabinet” located at the back of the sanctuary. The inscription on this bookcase reads,
In Memory of Katharine M. Horack
1854-1909
Mrs. Horack and her husband became members of the local church in 1881, and were instrumental in forming the Unitarian church; Mr. Horack was an early president of the board. Their daughter, Bertha Shambaugh, about whom Charity Rowley recently spoke at a
recent Sunday service, was an active member of the society. She and her husband, Benjamin (long-time director of the State Historical Society of Iowa) donated the bookcase in 1912. Although built to fit the space where it now resides, it has spent time in Channing Hall in the past. The Horacks also donated a sterling christening bowl at the time of the dedication of our building. It was used for christening children for many years.
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The marble-top table, visible in photos of this church when it was dedicated and in our previous building, has seen duty in the Fireside Room and the chancel. It often holds flower displays for Sunday services. A label identifies it as having been purchased from Nixon & Doe, furniture dealers in Iowa City during the 1860s and ‘70s. In 1973 a renter who had thrown the table in a fit of anger shattered the marble top. His organization replaced it with an exact duplicate. |
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An oak library table and the original chancel lectern, seen in photos of our earlier building, have traveled around the sanctuary as well. They currently reside at the west entrance, where they hold materials for Sunday services.
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Other items present in the 1908 building are the two oak high-back chairs that were placed originally in the chancel. The minister sat in one of these stern-looking chairs each Sunday, facing the congregation. Thomas Mikelson chose to sit in the front pew, so the chairs were removed to the Fireside Room.
Perhaps the most familiar possessions, used every Sunday for collections, are the red velvet bags carried by the ushers from pew to pew. No specific history is recorded for them. As Mary Bell wrote of these and several other items, “They were always there!” |
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How many of us are acquainted with “Ezekiel”? This lovely sculpture, which resides in a corner of the Fireside Room, was presented to UUSIC by the widow of its sculptor, Humbert Albrizio, a former faculty member of the UI College of Art. The Albrizios were friends of John and Peggy Gerber, long-time UUs. Mrs. Albrizio had donated Ezekiel to a church in Los Angeles, but when she took the Gerbers to see him they found him in a storeroom. The Gerbers offered to accept him for UUSIC, and so the sculpture was given to us on permanent loan. |
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Two more recent acquisitions are the pianos —one in Channing Hall and one in the sanctuary. Patrick Purswell was the music director in the 1960s when both were acquired: the blonde upright for the sanctuary (the organ having, presumably, wheezed its last), and soon after the Steinway baby grand.
Purchase of the Steinway was helped with a series of benefit concerts performed by him and his talented wife, Joan. Our tradition of clapping for special musicians was begun following a spectacular performance by Joan one Sunday morning.
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The Mighty Felgemaker
Marilyn Jennewein |
The pipe organ at the front of our sanctuary, dubbed “the Mighty Felgemaker” by some society members, was present when our building opened in 1908. According to member David Goodwin, who died several years ago, the organ was a gift from Andrew Carnegie, who “had been impressed with free public organ concerts in his own country.”
The Felgemaker is a tracker, non-electric organ, which allows air to be hand-pumped. In the early years, it was pumped “by a boy,” and Goodwin remembered earning 25¢ an hour to pump the organ during the 1930s. Later, we added bellows operated by an electric motor.
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By the early 1970s, the organ had fallen into serious disrepair. Professor Robert Triplett of Cornell College was the last to play it before it was deemed unplayable and unfixable.
Twenty years later, John Gerber, David Goodwin, Eleanor Goodwin Greene, Alex and Jean Kern, and Bob and Ruth Carlsen were major contributors to funding a repair effort, undertaken by a committee led by Jonni Ellsworth. John Bixler of Iowa City and Vince and Cheryl Gilbert of Dixon, Illinois, successfully restored the organ.
In the fall of 1991, the glorious sounds of the Felgemaker once again filled our sanctuary, and a few months later we welcomed Paul Soderdahl as our organist.
To learn more about the Mighty Felgemaker,
join us in celebrating this magnificent instrument at a
special Sunday service on January 20, 2008.
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From Within These Walls
is a project of the UUSIC
Building Centennial Team: Jeanette Carter, Susan Eberly,
Marilyn Jennewein, David Martin, Betty McKray, Charity
Rowley, Faye Strayer, and Mark Yuskis, with the help of many
others in our UUSIC community.
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Unitarian
Universalist
Society
of
Iowa City
