THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Thursday, June 1, 1995 TAG: 9506010550
SECTION: LOCAL PAGE: B1 EDITION: FINAL
TYPE: Column
SOURCE: Guy Friddell
LENGTH: Medium: 57 lines
In the nation's oldest English church, St. Luke's near Smithfield, there will be a concert at 4 p.m. Sunday seeking funds to restore the country's oldest pipe organ.
The Gothic brick church and its little desk-style pump organ decorated with oils of Old Testament scenes are beautiful creations.
If you haven't had a chance to gloat over their being here, you may wish to drop by ``Old Brick.'' Donations are voluntary.
One feels solid reassurance in viewing the sturdy, ruddy-hued church. It brings to mind the hymn, ``A mighty fortress is our God. . . ''
And with a squat, square tower at the front and walls 2 to 3 feet thick, it could turn into a fort.
Which was what the builders had in mind. St. Luke's was built in 1632, 25 years after Jamestown was settled, 10 years after Powhatan's tribes tried to wipe out the English. From fear of marauding Spanish ships, the builders chose a site of sight at the headwaters of Jones Creek, a tributary of the Pagan River.
The Virginia Landmark Register calls Old Brick ``the purest expression of Gothic architecture in the United States.'' For three centuries it ``formed the New World's most direct link with the architectural glories of the Middle Ages.''
The 350-year-old organ was built by Christian Smith Nicholas and Roger LeStrange. They played the viola da gamba and harbored musicians harassed by Cromwellian roundheads.
An expert extolled the instrument as ``a unique treasure of invaluable worth.'' Another said, ``In artistic terms, it's priceless.'' A third found it ``comparable to a lost Michelangelo.''
``There are many Stradivarius violins,'' said a fourth. ``There is only one Smithfield organ.''
For years, curator Richard Austin has been trying to bring the treasure out of obscurity and bring about its restoration.
The organ was a gift from Nancy Chapman Bangs Wallower, a Smithfield native who first married a Washington, D.C., attorney and later a Wall Street millionaire. She donated funds for it when the church was restored in the 1950s.
An early music ensemble, Fayre Laydes Musicke, will present the benefit concert featuring flutelike recorders and the viola da gamba.
South Hampton Roads musicians Deborah Ogan, Viola Berger and Frances Olsen will be joined by a former member Anita Avery of Baltimore. They were inspired to offer the concert by the ``fine, interpretive'' coverage of The Virginian-Pilot's Linda McNatt, said Austin.
``It won international notice.''
For information call (804) 357-3367 or, at night, (804) 357-6421. by CNB