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We would like to briefly outline a history both formal and anecdotal of the great Ernest Martin Skinner organ. The organ was built and installed by the Skinner Organ Company at the time the present church was dedicated on October 21, 1923. By that time, Ernie Skinner had taken a lesser role in the company as Vice President of Operations in plants located in Boston, the company’s headquarters and shops on Fifth Avenue in New York City. We were very fortunate to find the original records for this organ through a major contact, and they are in existence within an archive in Hayward, CA, which is a suburb of San Francisco. Copies of some of these records will be made available to you at a later time in our website, and during the time of the rededication. William Zeuch was a well-known organ expert within the ranks of the Skinner Organ Company at that time. He served as Vice President of Sales, and he and his daughter were organ virtuosos. Mr. Zeuch himself was responsible for the feasibility study that was held here at the church in building an original instrument using Mr. Skinner’s construction of organ building and tonal design that would bring out the lush, Romantic, and orchestral qualities of his brand of organs. Two stops on this organ were especially well conceived: they were and are a set of Trombone and Tromba reeds. They are remarkable when voiced properly with the rest of the organ. They were not a part of the original design. Sometime during the organ construction, Mr. Zeuch conferenced with Msgr. Francis McMurray, the second pastor of the church who by now had taken over the reigns of running Holy Innocents from his predecessor and founder of the parish, Fr. William Costello. Msgr. McMurray decided to add these stops to the organ. For this decision even today, e am very grateful. In those days, the OPUS numbers started at 101. Therefore from what we can gather, this organ at the Church of the Holy Innocents is the 290th Organ of the Skinner collection. There have been two publications that have been reprinted by the OHS that mention Holy Innocents and the organ by name. One of them is a directory of all known Skinner organs; the other is a reprint of Ernie Skinner popular newsletter, Stop, Open, and Reed (R-e-e-d). These newsletters are so much fun to look at. There is a United States directory of Skinners listed by state in the back of this reprint, and Holy Innocents is mentioned. Now perhaps you can understand why the historic nature of that fine instrument back there in our church, has been singled out by the Bradley Organization to receive such a distinctive recognition, and why all of us are so proud.