Bruce Fowkes, a partner at Richards Fowkes and Co., a pipe organ company located near Ooltewah works on a high-pitched pipe as he voices them on Tuesday.There isn't signage identifying Richards, Fowkes & Co. to passersby, and even if there were, people probably wouldn't guess what the business does.
Its products are niche and artisanal and take tens of thousands of man hours to make, as craftsmen carve and shave at wood and metal. The boutique maker of custom mechanical action organs is one of a small number of shops nationwide that does the handmade work it does, while being masterful enough to build for a church overseas.
The organ that it's building now, the biggest in its quarter-century history, will stand 20 feet wide and 25 feet tall and be transported to Kansas in a 53-foot trailer. The price tag for a 59-stop organ of this sort is about $2 million and takes years to build and several Richards, Fowkes & Co. craftsmen to set up. Almost everything is created by hand, including cutting the cow-bone and ebony for keyboards.
"It's really labor intensive," said Bruce Fowkes, who founded and owns the company with Ralph Richards.
Future contracts include organs for Calvary Church in Stonington, Conn., and Christ Church Cathedral in Cincinnati. The Ooltewah company has orders to take it through 2019.
For all of that, Richards, Fowkes & Co. needs more room. The company is in the midst of expanding from about 4,000 square feet to 10,000 square feet. Construction started in September and should be completed by February. The $500,000 project will allow the company to hire more craftsmen and manage more projects simultaneously. The expansion will more than triple current workshop space and add a larger milling area, expanded pipe shop and additional voicing rooms.
"Currently we focus on building one organ at a time," Fowkes said. "With the expansion, we hope to do one large organ and one small organ at the same time. With more space we can keep that going."
Building organs by hand is not a common job. That might explain why three members of Richards, Fowkes & Co.'s 11-person team hail from Europe. Pipe-makers Andy Wishart and Dean Wilson are from England. Master organ builder Patrick Spiesser, who works in all aspects of the trade, is from France.
Building mechanical action organs (as opposed to electric action) is typically learned through apprenticeship. Fowkes, 56, did his with Michael Bigelow in Utah, and Richards, 58, did his at Brombaugh in Oregon.
These days, "it's harder and harder to get kids interested," Fowkes said.
Among others throughout the nation, Richards, Fowkes & Co. has built organs for University of Tennessee and Westminster Presbyterian Church in Knoxville, as well as Christ Church in Chattanooga.
Contact staff writer Mitra Malek at mmalek@timesfreepress.com or 423-757-6406.