After the 1989 earthquake which damaged the main instrument in the Civic Auditorium, the organ was removed to Hartford, Conn. to the Austin Organ factory for refurbishment while the Civic Auditorium underwent retrofitting. The Echo organ was not damaged in the quake but its nine ranks of pipes were removed to Hartford for cleaning and repair. The chest was left in place. However, because the major retrofit work would take place in and around where the Echo organ was located, it was decided to encapsulate the Echo windchest in plywood to protect it from damage.
To this day, the Echo chest, reservoir and related equipment have remained entombed. Friends of the Exposition Organ are working with The City and the lessees of the Civic Auditorium to remove the Echo chest, reservoir, swell shades and blower to Brooks Hall where the rest of the Exposition Organ is stored. Interestingly, the Echo organ was originally winded by the two twenty horsepower blowers that supplied wind to the main instrument despite the hundreds of feet distance the Echo organ was from the main organ. Over the years, leaks in that very long wind line led the Schoenstein company to add a separate small blower to power the Echo organ.
